Ukraine fires air force chief after F-16 crash

The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Oleschuk’s dismissal on Friday. The decree did not provide details on why Oleschuk was suddenly removed from his position. Lt. Gen. Kryvonozhok Anatoliy Mykolayovych is to fill the post in an interim capacity.

Later on Friday, Zelenskyy shared a video online addressing the firing.

“I decided to replace the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said, adding that he was “immensely grateful to all our military pilots, all engineers, all warriors of mobile firing groups, air defense units. All those who are really fighting for Ukraine — for the result.”

And the same goes for the command level – we need to strengthen ourselves,” Zelenskyy said. “And take care of people. Take care of the staff – take care of all our warriors.”

Oleschuk’s removal as commander comes just a day after Ukraine admitted it lost one of its Western-supplied F-16 jets during Russia’s missile and drone strike on Monday. The Ukrainian military said it lost communication with the aircraft while it was engaging in Russian threats. It was later discovered that the aircraft had crashed.

The Ukrainian air force said the F-16 pilot, Oleksiy Mes, shot down three Russian cruise missiles and an attack drone before he was killed.

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

The cause of the accident is still unknown. However, it is a significant loss for Ukraine, which received its first batch of F-16s just weeks ago from its NATO allies.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Ukrainska Pravda that the investigation into the crash considered possible technical failure, pilot error and also friendly fire.

Before his dismissal, Oleschuk published a Telegram post blasting critics and assuring everyone that “we will find out the causes of the plane crash.”