Lucknow Press
Ukraine War: An F-16 fighter plane used by Ukraine crashed on Monday. The Ukrainian army gave this information. This is the first such loss after the US made plane was handed over to Kiev a few days ago.
According to Reuters, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement on Facebook on Thursday that the plane crashed while approaching the target during a Russian air strike and its pilot died.
The statement said that the F-16s ‘demonstrated high efficiency’ and shot down four Russian cruise missiles, while one plane lost contact while moving towards the next target. It was later learned that it crashed and the pilot died.
Ukraine has not provided details about the size of its new fleet, though losses are likely to be considerable. The Times of London quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying Ukraine has six jets.
Ukraine’s Air Force Western Command posted on Facebook the death of a pilot, Oleksiy Mes, saying he died while intercepting Monday’s attack, but did not say he was an F-16 pilot.
‘ Crash not result of Russian gunfire ‘
A US defense official told Reuters that Monday’s crash did not appear to be the result of Russian gunfire, with possible causes ranging from pilot error to mechanical failure still being investigated.
Zelensky had announced the arrival of F-16 President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on August 4 that his pilots had started flying F-16s. He described this moment as a major milestone in the fight against the invasion carried out by Russia 29 months ago.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that F-16s were used to intercept a major Russian attack of more than 200 missiles and drones a day earlier.
