The F-16 fighter jet transferred to Ukraine could have been shot down by the Ukrainians themselves from the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, a Western official briefed on the preliminary investigation into the disaster said, “signs” of this, writes The New York Times.
Versions of malfunction and pilot error are also not excluded, the publication notes. As the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary said earlier Sabrina SinghThey cannot confirm that the plane received by kyiv was shot down by Patriot. The fact that the F-16 could have been hit by an air defense system by mistake “due to lack of coordination between units” was stated by a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Maryana Bezuglaya.
The loss of one of the planes delivered to Ukraine so soon after receiving them is a major blow to kyiv’s efforts to convince its NATO allies that it can cope with sophisticated Western weapons, the paper said.
the day before Vladimir Zelensky dismissed the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Nikolai Oleschuk*. He gave no reason. After the audio version of Bezugla, Oleschuk* He accused her of discrediting the country’s military leadership, RBC recalls. After her dismissal, he quoted the former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny: “No matter how difficult it is for us, we will definitely not be ashamed.”
*An individual included in the RosFinMonitoring list of terrorists and extremists
