Volodymyr Zelenskyy sacks air force chief after top pilot killed in F-16 crash

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired the commander of the Ukrainian air force five days after the crash of a US-made F-16 jet that killed one of Kyiv’s top fighter pilots.

A decree announcing the dismissal of Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk was published on the presidential website on Friday evening. Zelenskyy did not provide a reason for firing Oleschuk, but in a video statement posted to Telegram he said it was “necessary at the command level [to] strengthen and protect people, protect personnel, protect all our soldiers”.

Lt Gen Anatoliy Kryvonozhko had been appointed acting commander in his place, the general staff of the armed forces said in a statement.

The removal of Oleschuk marks the third shuffle of a top military post in less than a year. Zelenskyy replaced his defence minister last September and his commander-in-chief of the armed forces in February. He replaced his chief of foreign intelligence and secretary of the national security and defence council in March.

Ukraine’s general staff announced on Thursday that a Ukrainian F-16 fighter had crashed on Monday during a mission to shoot down Russian missiles and drones in one of the largest aerial attacks mounted by Moscow since its full-scale invasion. Ukraine’s air force said separately that one of its top fighter pilots, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes, had been killed in combat during the same Russian attack.

On Friday, Ukrainian officials with knowledge of the incident confirmed to the Financial Times that Mes had been killed while piloting the F-16. The officials said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash. They said it appeared the aircraft had not been downed by enemy fire and they were looking at other possible causes ranging from pilot and mechanical error to friendly fire.

Hours before Oleschuk’s dismissal, Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuhla, a member of the parliamentary defence and intelligence committee, accused the air force commander of misconduct and covering up what she claimed was an incident of “friendly fire”.

The F-16, Bezuhla alleged, citing her access to sensitive information as a lawmaker but without sharing evidence publicly, had been shot down on Monday with a US-made Patriot air defence system that had been deployed to intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“This is at least the third time when our plane with a pilot was shot down by its own air defence,” Bezuhla alleged. “Two previous incidents that did not involve the F-16 were officially blamed on the Russians.”

Oleschuk responded hours later in a fiery post on Telegram, accusing her of fuelling “Russian propaganda” and saying that he had never hidden anything. The US was helping Kyiv investigate the F-16 crash, he added.

The crash was the first loss of one of Ukraine’s US-made F-16s since their arrival from Nato nations was announced by Zelenskyy earlier this month.

Mes was among the first group of Ukrainian pilots to train in F-16s. He had also helped lobby for the fighter jets on a visit to the US in 2022.