In a rare moment, Ukraine’s military as well as President Zelensky have announced that a Western-supplied F-16 fighter jet was shot down Saturday while conducing operations over Ukraine. Zelensky confirmed the pilot’s death in an announcement.
The Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) command has identified the that 26-year-old fighter pilot Pavlo Ivanov was killed during a combat mission in an F-16 Viper fighter aircraft.
Ukraine has not released details or the location of the plane downing, but both Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers have described the F-16 Viper was struck by a surface-to-air missile.
There’s been some speculation that it may have been a ‘friendly fire’ incident – but these details aren’t known at this point. The military’s statement said that the country’s F-16 pilots operate “in incredibly difficult conditions” and that the pilot died while “defending his native land from the occupiers,” according to a translation.
This only the second officially revealed downing of a Western-supplied F-16. “Saturday’s loss is only the second confirmed F-16 loss that Ukraine has faced, delivering a symbolic blow to Kyiv’s forces,” Newsweek writes.
“The F-16 aircraft are more advanced than the Soviet-era aircraft Ukraine’s forces had been using for much of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that began in February 2022. The aircrafts delivery from European allies was also hoped to change the battlefield calculus,” the report notes.
A Ukrainian Air Force message said there will be an investigation: “All the circumstances of the tragedy are being established by an interdepartmental commission,” it said.
Hellbound and Down 