The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed on Sunday that its military had shot down an F-16 fighter aircraft of US make that was operated by Ukraine, though the ministry remained silent about where the shooting had taken place.
It is the first time that Russia has stated it shot down an F-16 since the start of summer last year, when Ukraine first received the modern fourth-generation F-16 aircraft from its European partners.
"An F-16 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force was destroyed by air defense assets," the ministry reported in its usual briefing, RT reports. Further details of the encounter were not provided.
In the same weekend, Ukraine's Air Force confirmed losing one of its F-16s. An investigating committee including several ministries was allegedly established to identify the cause of the crash.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that pilot Pavel Ivanov had been killed "during an F-16 combat mission," and insisted that Ukraine would give a "strong and precise" response, suggesting Russia's involvement in the crash.
BBC Ukraine, quoting an unidentified Ukrainian source, said the plane was shot down by Russian fire. "The Russians launched three missiles at the plane in total. Either it was a guided anti-aircraft missile from a S-400 ground-based system or an R-37 air-to-air missile," the source added.
The risk of friendly fire was ruled out by the source, who said there were no Ukrainian air defense operations in the area at the time.
This is the second officially confirmed loss of an F-16 by Ukraine. The initial incident took place in August last year, and it resulted in the death of the pilot. The investigation findings for that incident were never revealed to the public. Various media sources had posited that the aircraft could have been accidently struck by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine will receive up to 80 F-16s from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway, with a go-ahead by the government of former US President Joe Biden. Delivery of the majority of the aircraft is to take years. Up to 2024, Kyiv received about 18 of the aircraft promised.
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