One of Ukraineʼs F-16 fighter jets was allegedly destroyed in a plane crash on Monday, August 26, just weeks after the first such aircraft arrived in Ukraine.
This was announced by The Wall Street Journal with reference to sources.
The media writes that the plane was not shot down by Russia, although the incident occurred during massive Russian missile attacks. Most likely, the crash occurred as a result of "pilot error."
Ukraine has not yet officially reported the loss of the plane. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously announced that Ukraine used F-16 to repel an attack on August 26.
Updated at 18:42. The Air Command "West" of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that on August 26, pilot Oleksiy Mes died. He destroyed three cruise missiles and one attack UAV while repelling the Russian attack.
The details of the pilotʼs death are unknown, but CNN writes that he was the pilot of the F-16 fighter jet, whose crash the WSJ wrote about. However, unlike the WSJ, CNNʼs sources in the Armed Forces do not believe that the cause of the incident was pilot error.
- On July 31, Bloomberg, citing a source, reported that the first batch of F-16 fighter jets had already arrived in Ukraine. President Zelensky for the first time officially confirmed the arrival of the first F-16s in Ukraine on August 4, the Day of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces. He did not specify the number of aircraft currently in Ukraine.
- Combat planes have been reaching Ukraine for more than a year. This journey was complicated by delays, questions about spare parts and the language barrier between the Ukrainian pilots and their foreign instructors.
- In total, four countries agreed to transfer F-16 fighters to Ukraine: the Netherlands ( 42 aircraft, some of them training ), Denmark ( 19 units ), Belgium ( 30 F-16 fighters by 2028 ) and Norway — 6 F-16 aircraft.