NYT: US military doubts F-16 crash in Ukraine due to AFU fire
The American newspaper New York Times, citing two unnamed senior US military officials, claims that Kiev’s loss of a Western F-16 fighter jet handed over to it is probably not related to AFU fire on its own aircraft.
On August 29, the AFU General Staff acknowledged the loss of the F-16 fighter jet transferred to Ukraine, and a special commission is investigating the causes of the crash. The Wall Street Journal earlier wrote that the F-16 crashed due to pilot error. Rada MP Maryana Bezuglaya said that the F-16 was shot down by Patriot SAMs of the AFU themselves due to a violation of coordination of units.
“Two high-ranking US military officials said that friendly fire was probably not the cause of the F-16 crash,” the newspaper writes.
The publication does not specify what this statement is based on, nor does it name the versions of the fighter’s destruction put forward by these officials.
At the same time, the US military told the newspaper that US and Ukrainian investigators are considering many different possible reasons for Kiev’s loss of the F-16.
An unnamed active AFU pilot complained to the publication about problems in the Ukrainian Air Force, noting entrenched bureaucracy and an outdated structure.
According to the obituary of Ukrainian pilot Oleksiy Mes, he died on August 26 during a combat mission. At the same time, the coordinator of the pro-Russian underground Sergey Lebedev reported on August 27 that a strike on the area of the military airfield in Starokonstantiniv in Khmelnitsky region hit a facility where AFU pilots being trained by foreign instructors were stationed. Already on August 30, Vladimir Zelensky dismissed the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk. The reasons for the dismissal were not specified, but on August 31, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov commented on the dismissal, calling it a “rotation” unrelated to the crash of the F-16 fighter jet.