This is one of the F-16s that Ukraine has received from its Western allies to help in the war. Invasion of Russia The Ukrainian Army General Staff said on Thursday (August 29) that the plane had crashed. The pilot had died.
The military statement posted on Facebook said the fighter jet was shot down after Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones on Monday. The statement said four of these Russian missiles were shot down by F-16s.
The crash was the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine, where they arrived late last month. At least six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered.
The Defence Ministry has launched an investigation into the accident.
The Ukrainian Air Force identified the pilot in a Facebook post as Col. Alexey “Moonfish” Mace, who “unfortunately, at the cost of his life, saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles.”
Moonfish and a fellow Ukrainian pilot, Andriy “Juice” Pilshchikov, made an early, public trip to the US in June 2022 to press lawmakers and the media to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and they both continue to serve as the public face of the fight to secure Ukraine’s airspace. Juice died in a crash in August 2023.
“When I met Ukrainian pilots Juice and Moonfish, I had a feeling they would not make it in the war,” former US Congressman Adam Kingzinger posted on “X”, formerly known as Twitter. “They fought fiercely for Ukraine and the F16.”
Earlier on Thursday, Russia launched a heavy air strike on Ukraine for the third time in four days, again firing missiles and dozens of drones, most of which were destroyed, the Ukrainian air force said.
A statement from the Russian Air Force said that the Russian military fired five missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets. The statement said that air defense intercepted two missiles and 60 drones, and 14 other drones probably fell before reaching their targets.
Authorities in the capital Kyiv said debris from the destroyed drone fell in three districts of the city, causing minor damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.
Since invading its neighbour in February 2022, frequent and disturbing long-range attacks on civilian areas by Russia have been a feature of the war.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway – all NATO members – have committed to providing more than 60 aircraft to Ukraine. This number is tiny compared to the Russian jet fighter fleet, which is about 10 times larger.
Officials in Kiev say Ukraine needs at least 130 F-16 fighter jets to neutralise Russian air power.
U.S. officials told The Associated Press late last month that the first shipment of F-16s promised by European countries had arrived in Ukraine.
Military analysts say their arrival will not significantly change the course of the war, given Russia’s huge air force and state-of-the-art air defense systems. But Ukrainian officials welcomed them, saying it would provide an opportunity to counterattack Russia’s air superiority.
Ukraine has so far been using Soviet-era warplanes, and its pilots have spent months training intensively on the F-16 in the West. The usual training period is three years.
US President Joe Biden gave the green light to send US-made warplanes to Ukraine in August 2023. This came after months of pressure from Kiev and internal debate in the US administration, where officials feared the move could escalate tensions with the Kremlin.
F-16s can fly at twice the speed of sound and have a maximum range of over 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers). They can also fire modern weapons used by NATO countries.
Ukrainian officials have recently become more vocal that Western countries supporting their war effort should end sanctions that restrict what targets Ukraine can hit inside Russia with the long-range weapons it provides.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Western allies to free his hands in deciding whether to attack Russian soil.
“All our partners must be more proactive — much more proactive — in countering Russian terrorism,” Zelensky said late Wednesday. “We emphasize that their determination now — to lift the ban on long-range strikes to Ukraine — will help us end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the whole world.”
The EU’s top diplomat on Thursday backed Zelensky’s effort to end limits on international supporters.
Ukraine has deployed domestically built drones to attack Russia.
The Russian military said on Thursday it had thwarted an overnight attack on Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed three Ukrainian maritime drones aimed at the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian-appointed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozzhayev said four Ukrainian aerial drones and three sea drones were destroyed “at a considerable distance” from the peninsula’s coast.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s army general staff acknowledged on Thursday that Ukraine was involved in an attack this week on an oil depot inside Russia, where a fire broke out.
The attacks in the Rostov and Kirov regions were part of Ukraine’s effort to disrupt the military infrastructure supporting Russia’s war machine.