F-16 Fighting Falcon News

August 29, 2024 (by Lieven Dewitte) - One of the F-16s sent from NATO allies to Ukraine has been destroyed. The jet went down amid a barrage of Russian missiles on Monday, killing pilot Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes.
It marks the first loss of its kind since the planes were delivered earlier this month.

Initial reports indicate the jet wasn’t shot down by enemy fire, although the incident occurred during a massive Russian missile barrage across the country on Monday.

The Ukrainian military said the pilot destroyed three cruise missiles and one drone in Russia's largest aerial attack to date.

As of June 2022, Moonfish was the commander of a squadron of Ukrainian MiG-29 fighters. At thatt time he visited the US with another Ukrainian pilot, call sign Juice, to lobby for F-16s for Ukraine. They met with several US lawmakers and explained which modern weapons systems were needed most in Ukraine. The pilots met with Adam Kinzinger in his office in Washington, D.C. As a result, Kinzinger introduced the "Ukraine Fighter Pilots Act" to the United States House of Representatives on June 17, 2022.

After months of advocacy to ensure F-16s for Ukraine, Moonfish was in August 2023 among the first Ukrainian pilots to start F-16 training in the US. He gave an extensive interview to Ukrainian TV describing the process. In the Fall of 2023, his training advanced from a simulator cockpit to actual F-16 airframes.

Around 65 F-16s have been pledged by NATO countries since US President Joe Biden first authorised willing European allies to send them to Ukraine in August 2023.