F-16 crashes while repelling Russian missile attack, pilot killed

A US-designed F-16 fighter jet, a valuable piece of military equipment recently delivered by the West to Ukraine, crashed while repelling a Russian missile attack, killing its pilot, kyiv announced on Thursday, August 29.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the F-16s helped shoot down four Russian cruise missiles in the attack, but “During the approach to the next target, communication with one of the aircraft was lost”. “It later turned out that the plane crashed and the pilot was killed”he said on Telegram, without specifying when the accident took place or the identity of the pilot.

Earlier Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force said one of its pilots had been killed in massive Russian strikes earlier this week, but did not mention the F-16.

The news of the crash comes as Ukraine announced in early August that it had received its first Western F-16 fighter jets, after a wait of more than two years. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine used the aircraft to repel the latest massive Russian strikes earlier this week. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of the country in February 2022, kyiv has been relentlessly pleading for American-made F-16s to be delivered.