Ukraine loses F-16 and pilot
August 29, 2024
Lutsk City Council deputy Igor Polischuk revealed that a 30 year old Ukrainian F-16 pilot, Lt Col Aleksey (Oleksiy) Sergeevich Mes (callsign ‘Moonfish’), had been killed on August 26, during a missile attack against Kolomyia military airfield (also known as Ivano Frankovsk). Lt Col Mes had qualified on the F-16 following training in the US and Denmark, and had previously served as a MiG-29 pilot with the 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade at Lutsk. Polischuk said that Mes had been killed “while carrying out a combat mission to protect the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.” It was later reported that Mes had shot down three Russian cruise missiles and a one-way attack drone before falling himself – possibly in a friendly fire incident.
A Western official who was briefed on the preliminary investigation into the loss said that there were “indications that friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery might have brought down the jet, though mechanical failure and pilot error had not been ruled out.”
One F-16 was confirmed destroyed and another damaged during the missile strikes, and Mes was one of just six fully operational Ukrainian F-16 pilots.
In a new video about the new F-16s, released a few days before, the Ukrainian MoD had accidentally revealed the basing of the aircraft at the Kolomyia military airfield in the Ivano-Frankovsk region.
Kolomyia, the home of the 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade, is the westernmost military aircraft in Ukraine, close to the borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, and relatively far from Russian and Russian-occupied territory.
On the same day, the Netherlands confirmed that Ukraine would receive six more F-16 from the RNLAF, taking the planned Dutch-supplied total to 30 aircraft. The loss of Colonel Mes followed an initial Ukrainian F-16 strike against targets in Crimea on 24 August, and the successful interecept of a number of missiles and UAVs on Monday 26 August.
These early-morning attacks were said to have been the worst of Russia’s 29-month war against Ukraine, with hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones being fired against Kyiv and other cities. The attacks destroyed much of Ukraine’s electrical grid and killed four civilians. The Ukrainian air force and army claimed to have shot down 102 missiles and 99 UAVs.
Following the incident, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, was dismissed. Lieutenant General Anatoliy Kryvonozhko, previously the chief of the Air Force Command Centre, was appointed acting Air Force Commander.
