Ukrainian F-16 crashes during mission to shoot down Russian missiles

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A Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet crashed on Monday during a mission to shoot down Russian missiles and drones in one of the largest aerial attacks mounted by Moscow since its full-scale invasion, Kyiv said.

Ukraine’s air force said separately that one of its top fighter pilots, lieutenant colonel Oleksiy Mes, had been killed in combat during the same Russian attack.

Kyiv confirmed the first loss of one of its US-made F-16s in Ukraine since their arrival from Nato nations was announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month.

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had used its newly delivered F-16s for the first time this week to intercept Russian missiles and drones.

One person briefed on the F-16 crash said it appeared the aircraft was not downed by enemy fire.

Mes’s death and the loss of the F-16 mark a significant setback for Kyiv, which spent two years pleading with western partners to send a fleet of the US-made fighter jets to help it counter Russian attacks and train Ukrainian pilots to fly them.

Ukraine’s F-16s were used alongside anti-aircraft missile units on Monday to “repulse” a missile attack by Russia, the Ukrainian general staff of the army said in a statement on Thursday.

The F-16s were approaching a target when “contact with one of the aircraft was lost”, the statement added. “As it turned out later, the plane crashed, the pilot died.”

A special commission has been opened to investigate the possible causes of the F-16 crash. These range from pilot and mechanical error to friendly fire, according to the person with knowledge of the incident.

Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Monday and Tuesday focused on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in 15 regions, and constituted two of Moscow’s largest aerial bombardments since the full-scale invasion.

Dozens of Russian projectiles were shot down but several of the more than 200 on Monday and 90 on Tuesday struck their targets, causing rolling blackouts across the country and exacerbating Kyiv’s power shortages. 

A Ukrainian military spokesperson declined to provide information about the pilot killed in the F-16 crash.

But the air force said in a separate statement on Thursday that Mes had been killed on Monday while repelling the huge Russian aerial barrage.

Mes, whose call sign was “Moonfish”, “fought heroically in his last battle”, the air force said, adding he had destroyed three cruise missiles and a suicide drone during the operation.

Mes was part of the first group of Ukrainian pilots to train in F-16s, and he also played a key role in lobbying for the fighter jets on a visit to the US in 2022.

President Joe Biden last year approved the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine from Nato countries including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, and 80 aircraft have so far been pledged. 

When Zelenskyy this month announced the arrival of the first F-16s in Ukraine, he did not specify how many had been delivered.

A Ukrainian official said as many as 10 fighter jets and no less than six had been delivered out of the promised 80. Zelenskyy said the jets’ arrival marked “a new chapter” for his country’s air force, which is outgunned and outmanned by Russia’s.

Officials and analysts have said the jets are not expected to be game-changers in the war.

But alongside western-provided air defence systems, including Patriot surface-to-air missiles, the F-16s are likely to help Ukraine protect its skies from Russian attacks, provide air cover for troops near the frontline and strike ground targets.