A Lieutenant-Colonel Ukrainian at the controls of an F-16 fighter airplane of American manufacture was killed during a Russian air strike on the night of Saturday to Sunday, according to The Kyiv Independent.
“The pilot used all of his on -board weapons and killed seven air targets. By slaughtering the last, his plane was damaged and began to lose altitude, “said the Air Force on Telegram. He made sure to avoid crashing a populated area and was unable to eject in time.
“Lieutenant-colonel Maksym Ustymenko, first class pilot, was killed at the controls of an F-16 in combat,” wrote the Ukrainian government, on social networks, accompanying the message of a pilot photo. He destroyed seven enemy targets before his plane was hit. In his last moments, he removed the device from an inhabited area, but did not have time to eject. »»
“Death as a hero”
“The work of Ukrainian hunters is extremely dangerous and risky, both to strike enemy terrestrial targets and to repel air attacks,” continued the Ukrainian Air Force, welcoming the memory of this pilot born in 1993 and “died as a hero”.
This is the third loss of an F-16 since the start of the war, the army said.
“Ukraine must strengthen its air defense,” said Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president said he again “ready to buy” American systems Patriot.
Donald Trump, who has come closer to Vladimir Putin since February, has not, for the moment, have not responded favorably to this request from kyiv.
Over 500 Russian drones and missiles dropped overnight from Saturday to Sunday
Moscow continues its daily bombings of Ukrainian towns and villages, as every day since the start of its invasion in February 2022, while the talks between kyiv and Moscow for a cease-fire are in the dead end.
The Russian army, which claimed on Sunday taking a new locality in the Donetsk region, claims to have “touched” in the night only sites of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and oil refineries.
On Saturday, Russia launched a massive strike of 477 drones and 60 missiles of different types to Ukraine. Air strikes have been recorded in six places, including kyiv, the capital.
One dead and more than 10 injured
In total, eleven people were injured, including two children, in the Cherkassy region (center), the regional governor, Igor Tabourets, said on Telegram. In the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in the west of the country, very far from the front, a woman has also been injured and hospitalized, according to the regional official, Svitlana Onychtchouk.
In the morning, a 60-year-old man was killed in a Russian drone attack on his vehicle in the Kharkiv region (northeast), according to regional authorities.
The Russian army, for its part, said it had intercepted three Ukrainian drones on the night of Saturday to Sunday. According to the Ukrainian special services (SBU) on Sunday, a deposit of the Russian army ammunition The border region of Britansk was affected on Saturday, according to AFP.
