Ukraine has lost an F-16 aircraft and its pilot while repelling a Russian missile and drone strike, according to country’s air force, as heavy fighting in the war, now in its fourth year, grinds on daily with no signs of a ceasefire on the horizon.
After shooting down seven air targets, the plane was damaged and lost altitude overnight, the Ukrainian military said in a statement published on Telegram on Sunday.
“This night, while repelling a massive enemy air attack, a pilot of the 1st class, Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustimenko, born in 1993, died on an F-16 aircraft,” it said.
In a separate statement, the air force said Russia launched 537 projectiles against Ukraine, including Shahed drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Ukraine claimed to have intercepted 475 of them.
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The Russian armed forces struck Ukraine's defense industry facilities and oil refineries overnight with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
ReplyDelete"At night, the Russian armed forces delivered a mass strike by air-, ground-, and sea-based long-range precision weapons, Kinzhal hypersonic ballisticmissile systems as well as unmanned aerial vehicles at Ukrainian defense industry and oil refineries. The goal of the strike was achieved. All the assigned targets were engaged," the ministry said in a statement.
The plane that the West handed over to Kyiv was damaged and began to lose altitude, the media reported. According to them, the fighter was hit by its own air defense.
ReplyDeleteThe Kiev regime previously admitted that by the beginning of June it had lost three F-16 fighters. In April and May, the planes were shot down under similar circumstances.
Ucrania reconoce la pérdida de otro F-16 occidental junto con su piloto
ReplyDeleteSe informa que el caza sufrió algunos daños y que el piloto "no logró eyectarse a tiempo", según el canal ucraniano 24. A su vez, la Fuerza Aérea ucraniana también confirmó el domingo la baja de un F-16 y la muerte del piloto.
De acuerdo con parlamentarios ucranianos, esto ocurrió durante el último ataque con drones y misiles de las FFAA rusas. De ese modo, es el tercer caso de pérdida de un caza de este modelo reconocido por Kiev hasta principios de junio.