Ukraine: Zelensky sacks air force commander after F-16 crash

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday the dismissal of Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk, a day after news broke that a US-designed F-16 jet delivered to Kiev had crashed.

“I have decided to replace the commander of the air force of the Ukrainian armed forces,” Zelensky said on Telegram, after a decree to this effect was published on the presidential website.

While Zelensky did not explain the reasons for this decision, it comes the day after the news of the crash of an F-16 plane, a precious piece of military equipment recently delivered by the West and which kyiv had been relentlessly demanding for two years.

According to the Ukrainian army, this crash — in which the pilot Oleksiï Mes, trained in the United States, was killed — took place during a massive attack by Russian missiles and drones carried out on Monday.

Little information has been provided on this episode by the Ukrainian authorities.

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Photo released by the Air Command “West” of the Air Forces of Ukraine on August 29, 2024, showing a portrait of Oleksiy Mes, a Ukrainian F-16 pilot of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who died in an accident on August 26, 2024 while repelling a Russian air attack © Air Forces of Ukraine – Handout

According to a Ukrainian MP, Mariana Bezugla, a member of the Parliament's Defense Committee, the F-16 was mistakenly shot down by a Patriot anti-aircraft system “due to poor coordination between units.”

In a message on Telegram, she criticized on Thursday “the culture of lies” within the Ukrainian military command and the fact that “none of the generals have been punished” and that “General Oleshchuk remains in post”.

On Friday, she added that this was “at least the third time” that a Ukrainian plane had been mistakenly shot down by Ukrainian air defenses. “The two previous incidents, which did not involve F-16s, were officially blamed on the Russians,” she accused.

Mykola Oleshchchuk had promised on Facebook, Friday before his dismissal, to “discover the causes of the air disaster” with the F-16, assuring that he “was not hiding anything”.

He accused Mariana Bezougla of wanting to “discredit senior military officials” and the United States, designers of the F-16s and Patriot systems supplied to Kiev.

Ukraine had announced at the beginning of August that it had received its first F-16s.

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