Volodymyr Zelensky fires Ukrainian air force commander days after top pilot killed in F-16 crash

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Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the chief of Ukraine’s air force days after an F-16 pilot was killed defending against a large-scale Russian attack.

In the first known Ukrainian loss of the US-made fighter jets, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes – who used the callsign Moonfish – was killed in an aerial battle on Monday, as Moscow launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Air force commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk had angrily rejected claims by Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuhla, who cited unnamed sources, that the jet had been downed in “friendly fire” by a US Patriot missile.

Ukraine’s air force did not deny the claims by Ms Bezuhla, who is deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s defence committee, and said that US experts had joined the Ukrainian investigation into the crash.

Hours after Mr Oleschuk’s denunciation of Ms Bezuhla, the Ukrainian president announced that he had dismissed the air force commander from his post.

In his nightly address, Mr Zelensky said: “I have decided to replace the Commander of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I am immensely grateful to all our military pilots, all engineers, all warriors of mobile firing groups, air defence units. All those who really fight for Ukraine – for the result.

“And the same goes for the command level – we must strengthen ourselves. And take care of people. Take care of personnel – take care of all our warriors.”

Mr Oleschuk had led Ukraine’s air force since August 2021, some six months prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Lieutenant General Anatolii Kryvonozhko, who previously led air operations in central Ukraine, has been appointed interim commander of Ukraine's air force, the army’s general staff said.

Ukraine’s Nato allies have pledged around 65 F-16s since US president Joe Biden first authorised Western allies to provide them in August 2023. But with Ukrainian pilots requiring extensive training to fly them, the first jets arrived in Ukraine earlier this month.

The fallen pilot Mes had been among the most vocal of those calling for Ukraine’s allies to provide it with F-16s. Writing on Facebook, his friend Tetiana Shevchuk described him as “an exemplary pilot” and said he had been “the first Ukrainian pilot to sit at the controls of an F-16 and the first to fly combat missions”.

Ukraine’s air force command said: “He heroically fought his last battle in the sky. Oleksiy destroyed three cruise missiles and one kamikaze drone, while repelling a massive Russian combined air and missile attack. Oleksiy saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles. Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life.”

Additional reporting by AP