Ukraine received its first six F-16 fighter jets this July. These are one of those weapons that kyiv had been demanding for months, with its characteristic diplomatic persistence. Finally, the first units arrived, delivered by the Netherlands. On August 26, one of these F-16s crashed, killing its pilot, a veteran officer, Oleksii Mes. The Ukrainian Army General Staff confirmed that the plane was not shot down by the enemy and that it could be an accident. The incident, which has captured the attention of the national and international press, has claimed the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Mikola Oleschuk. President Volodymyr Zelensky fired him on Friday night.
Zelensky did not specify the reasons for the dismissal of this lieutenant general, but the Ukrainian press assumes that the crash of the F-16 was the main pretext for the decision. “I am immensely grateful to all our pilots, engineers, fighters of our mobile fire groups. To all those who really fight for Ukraine,” The president said in a video“And the same goes for the command level, we have to strengthen ourselves, and take care of our people, of our personnel. We have to take care of all our fighters.”
Oleschuk responded to his dismissal with a message on social media that was interpreted as a challenge to Zelensky. His farewell text merely reproduced a phrase that former head of the Armed Forces Valeri Zaluzhni had used when he was relieved of his duties by Zelensky in February after two years of friction: “No matter how difficult it may be for us, what is certain is that we will not be ashamed.”
On August 26, Russia launched the largest airstrike on Ukraine since the invasion. More than 100 drones and more than a hundred missiles were fired at 15 provinces of the country. Zelensky himself revealed a day later that F-16s had participated in the actions to shoot down Russian missiles. The Wall Street Journal On August 29, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that one of these fighters had crashed, according to US sources, without being shot down by Russian fire. The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed the loss shortly afterwards and said it had opened an investigation to determine the facts.
Anonymous Air Force sources told Ukrainian media that they are considering the hypothesis that he was accidentally shot down by a Patriot missile of the Ukrainian air defence systems. This theory was supported by controversial MP Mariana Bezugla, a former member of the parliamentary group of Zelensky’s party Servant of the People and known for her fierce criticism of the military establishment. Air Force officials have asked Ukrainian intelligence services to intervene against Bezugla for publishing this information.
The first six F-16s operating in Ukraine are among 24 that the Netherlands has pledged to donate. The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway have signed agreements to supply around 90 of the fighter jets, the most widely used in the NATO bloc. They are not new planes, having been in service for decades, but they are better aircraft than the old Soviet MiGs and Sukhois that Ukraine has. The number of fighters and helicopters in service in Ukraine is estimated to be around 100, according to unofficial estimates by analysts, mainly thanks to transfers from other Eastern European countries. Russia, which has a fleet of more than 1,500 fighter and bomber aircraft, some better and more modern than the F-16s, has lost 368 aircraft so far in the war, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
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The other news that shook Ukraine on Friday was the Russian bombing of Kharkiv, which caused multiple civilian casualties. The city hall of Ukraine’s second largest city announced on Saturday that the death toll had risen to seven people, including a 14-year-old girl. The Russian attack also caused more than 80 injuries, 22 of them minors.
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