The fighter jet went down on Monday when Russia launched a primary missile and drone barrage at Ukraine, a military statement posted on Facebook said. According to the statement, four of those Russian missiles were shot down by F-16s.
The crash is the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine, where they arrived at the end of last month. At least six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered. The Ukrainian Air Force, in a Facebook post, named the pilot as Colonel Alexei ‘Moonfish’ Mes, who “saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles, unfortunately, at the cost of your own life.”
‘Moonfish’ and a fellow Ukrainian pilot, Andrii ‘Juice’ Pilshchykov, made an early public visit to the US in June 2022 to press lawmakers and media to send F-16s to Ukraine. They continued to serve as public faces for Ukraine’s battle to secure its airspace. ‘Juice’ was killed in an accident in August last year.
“When I met with Ukraine pilots ‘Juice’ and ‘Moonfish’, I had a sick feeling they wouldn’t make it through the war,” former US congressman Adam Kingzinger posted on X. “They fought like hell for Ukraine and the F16.”
Earlier on Thursday, Russia conducted a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine for the third time in four days, again launching missiles and drones that mainly were intercepted, Ukraine’s air force said.
Russian forces fired five missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets, the air force said in a statement. It said that air defenses stopped two missiles and 60 drones, while 14 other drones presumably fell before reaching their target.
Authorities in the capital, Kyiv, said debris from destroyed drones fell in three districts of the city, causing minor damage to civilian infrastructure but no injuries.
Atrocities apart, the strikes at civilian areas became a long-range feature of the war in February 2022. NATO members Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have promised Ukraine 68 F-16 jets. The figure, however, compares with a Russian jet fighter fleet about 10 times its size.
Kyiv officials said at least 130 F-16 fighter jets would be required to neutralize the Russian air power in Ukraine.
