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

Keep knowledgeable with free updates

Merely signal as much as the Struggle in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired the commander of the Ukrainian air drive 5 days after the crash of a US-made F-16 jet that killed one in all Kyiv’s high fighter pilots.

A decree asserting the dismissal of Lieutenant Common Mykola Oleschuk was revealed on the presidential web site on Friday night. Zelenskyy didn’t present a purpose for firing Oleschuk, however in a video assertion posted to Telegram he stated it was “essential on the command degree [to] strengthen and defend folks, defend personnel, defend all our troopers”.

Lt Gen Anatoliy Kryvonozhko had been appointed performing commander in his place, the overall employees of the armed forces stated in an announcement.

The elimination of Oleschuk marks the third shuffle of a high navy put up in lower than a 12 months. Zelenskyy changed his defence minister final September and his commander-in-chief of the armed forces in February. He changed his chief of international intelligence and secretary of the nationwide safety and defence council in March.

Ukraine’s common employees introduced on Thursday {that a} Ukrainian F-16 fighter had crashed on Monday throughout a mission to shoot down Russian missiles and drones in one of many largest aerial assaults mounted by Moscow since its full-scale invasion. Ukraine’s air drive stated individually that one in all its high fighter pilots, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes, had been killed in fight throughout the identical Russian assault.

On Friday, Ukrainian officers with information of the incident confirmed to the Monetary Instances that Mes had been killed whereas piloting the F-16. The officers stated an investigation was below technique to decide the reason for the crash. They stated it appeared the plane had not been downed by enemy hearth and so they had been taking a look at different potential causes starting from pilot and mechanical error to pleasant hearth.

Hours earlier than Oleschuk’s dismissal, Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuhla, a member of the parliamentary defence and intelligence committee, accused the air drive commander of misconduct and masking up what she claimed was an incident of “pleasant hearth”.

The F-16, Bezuhla alleged, citing her entry to delicate data as a lawmaker however with out sharing proof 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 focusing on Ukraine’s power infrastructure.

Really helpful

“That is at the very least the third time when our aircraft with a pilot was shot down by its personal air defence,” Bezuhla alleged. “Two earlier incidents that didn’t contain the F-16 had been formally blamed on the Russians.”

Oleschuk responded hours later in a fiery put up on Telegram, accusing her of fuelling “Russian propaganda” and saying that he had by no means hidden something. The US was serving to Kyiv examine the F-16 crash, he added.

The crash was the primary lack of one in all Ukraine’s US-made F-16s since their arrival from Nato nations was introduced by Zelenskyy earlier this month.

Mes was among the many first group of Ukrainian pilots to coach in F-16s. He had additionally helped foyer for the fighter jets on a go to to the US in 2022.