Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sacked the country's air force chief on Friday, a day after Kyiv reported a US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed in combat, killing the pilot.
In a video message, Zelensky said he has decided to "replace the commander of the air force" to strengthen Ukraine's military leadership.
His office later published a presidential decree officially removing Mykola Oleshchuk from the post.
While Kyiv had been seeking the advanced fighter jet from the West for months, the crash of the F-16 was the biggest disappointment. This is reportedly the first loss of the supersonic aircraft, weeks after Ukraine started receiving them.
According to the military, the plane and its pilot crashed during a combat mission earlier in the week after they downed the incoming missiles launched by Russia.
According to Ukrainian lawmaker Mariana Bezugla, a member of a parliamentary defense, security and intelligence committee, the F-16 was downed by Ukraine's own air defense systems in a case of friendly fire.
Oleshchuk went on to further accuse Bezugla of trying to discredit Ukraine's military leadership and stated that a full investigation into the incident was underway in response to the above allegations.
Zelensky didn't spell out why he'd chosen to axe his air force commander-only that "his command team needed to get stronger."
Lieutenant General Anatolii Kryvonozhko, who oversees the air force's operations in central Ukraine, would temporarily assume the role of overall commander, the air force said.
This is not the first time that Zelensky has axed a top military leader. In spring, a popular head of Ukraine's armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, was removed and replaced with Oleksandr Syrsky, who oversaw Ukraine's shock counter-attack into Russia's western Kursk region.
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**Top Ukrainian military pilot dies after F-16 fighter jet crashes**
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 29, 2024 - A top Ukrainian fighter pilot died after a U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet crashed on Monday, authorities said.
Pilot Oleksiy Mes, with his piloting call sign "Moonfish," was killed in the crash as he was "repelling the biggest ever aerial attack" by Russia against Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military source. Mes was buried on Thursday, CNN reported.
Ukrainian officials have denied the accident was the result of pilot error. Investigations into the cause of the crash continue.
"In the process of conducting an airstrike on the next target, contact with one of the planes was lost. It later became known that the plane crashed and the pilot died," it said Thursday in its regular update.
The appearance of U.S.-made F-16s in Ukraine had been highly expected while the country is still looking for military means from its allies amid the ongoing war against Russia's invasion that has persisted for over 2.5 years. The planes arrived in Ukraine earlier this month, and the pilot who died was one of the few Ukrainian aviators trained to fly the F-16s.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the Ukrainian Air Force used the jet to destroy missiles and drones launched by Russia earlier in the week. This is the first official confirmation of F-16s being used in combat.
Reports said Mes' plane was brought down under a hail of Russian missiles, but the Ukrainian F-16 had managed to destroy three cruise missiles and a Russian drone in the largest attack on Ukraine yet, the statement said.
"Oleksiy saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles," the Ukrainian Air Force wrote on social media. "Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life."
Mes and a fellow Ukrainian F-16 pilot, Andrii, appeared before Congress in June 2022 to make the case for delivering the planes to Ukraine.
"When I met with Ukraine pilots Juice and Moonfish I had a sick feeling they wouldn't make it through the war," former US congressman Adam Kinzinger posted on X. "They fought like hell for Ukraine, and the F16."
Pilshchykov, known by his call sign Juice, was killed on a mission last August.
The US and NATO allies have pledged around 65 F-16s to Ukraine, which has also asked its allies for permission to use long-range missiles.
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