Ukraine suffered the loss of an F-16 after one crashed and killed the senior pilot

“Oleksii saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles,” the Ukrainian Air Force wrote in a Telegram statement. — Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life.

A US official told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the loss of the aircraft, that initial reports suggested the plane was not downed by Russian fire. However, a source in the Ukrainian Defense Forces told CNN they do not believe pilot error caused the crash.

The Pentagon and US European Command referred questions to the Ukrainian military, and the Kiev air force did not immediately respond to questions from Business Insider.

The fatal incident occurred during Monday’s massive Russian missile and drone attack, which Ukraine said was the largest aerial bombardment of the war on Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said that Kiev used its F-16s for the first time in combat that day to shoot down several Russian missiles. He said the fighter jets “worked well”.

The crash of the F-16 and the death of a pilot is a major blow to Ukraine, which has waited years to receive the fighter jets. After the US allowed its European allies to transfer the aircraft to Kiev last year, Western countries began training a limited number of Ukrainian pilots to fly them.

Ukraine revealed in early August that the first F-16s had arrived. However, Kiev only operates a small number of fighter jets, and Zelenskyy expressed concern that the country would not receive enough to make a difference in the fight.