Ukrainian president fires air force commander after fatal F-16 crash
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired the commander of the air force Friday, four days after an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners crashed during a Russian bombardment and killed the pilot.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website.
“We need to protect people. Protect personnel. Take care of all our soldiers,” Zelensky said in an address minutes after the order was published. He said Ukraine needs to strengthen its army on the command level.
Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko was appointed acting air force commander, the army’s General Staff said.
The dismissal came on the same day that Oleshchuk directed scathing criticism at a lawmaker who is deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s defense committee for her claims that the F-16 was downed by a Patriot air-defense system. Ukraine has received an unspecified number of the U.S.-made systems.
Mariana Bezuhla cited unnamed sources for her claim and demanded punishment for those responsible for the error.
Oleshchuk accused Bezuhla of defaming the air force and discrediting U.S. arms manufacturers and said that he hoped she would face legal consequences for her claims.
“The truth will win,” Bezuhla posted on X shortly after the dismissal order was published.
The air force did not directly deny that the F-16 was hit by a Patriot missile.
U.S. experts have joined the Ukrainian investigation into the crash, the air force said.
Meanwhile, a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv using powerful plane-launched glide bombs killed five people, including a 14-year-old girl on a playground, and wounded 47 others, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
The bombs struck five locations across the city, the governor said. One hit a 12-story apartment block, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor. Emergency crews searching for survivors feared the building could collapse.
Zelensky pointed to the strikes in Kharkiv, which had a prewar population of about 1.4 million, as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is facing intense Russian airstrikes, but its residents are defiant. “We can stand up, no matter what they do,” one said.
The Kharkiv strike “wouldn’t have happened if our defense forces had the capability to destroy Russian military aviation at its bases. We need strong decisions from our partners to stop this terror,” Zelensky said.
F-16s are one of the weapons that could be used to hit Russian bases behind the front line.
Oleshchuk had said on the Telegram messaging service that “a detailed analysis” was being conducted into why the F-16 went down Monday.
“We must carefully understand what happened, what the circumstances are, and whose responsibility it is,” Oleshchuk wrote in the post.
The latest attack on the city struck civilian infrastructure, wounding eight people, local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said on social media.
The crash was the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine, where the warplanes arrived at the end of last month. At least six are believed to have been delivered by European countries.
Military analysts say the planes will not be a game changer in the war, given Russia’s massive air force and sophisticated air defense systems. But Ukrainian officials welcomed the supersonic jets, which can carry modern weapons used by NATO countries, for offering an opportunity to hit back at Russia’s air superiority.
Elsewhere, the Russian army is making slow but gradual progress in its drive into eastern Ukraine, while Ukrainian forces are holding ground in the Kursk border region of southwestern Russia after a recent incursion.
The Institute for the Study of War said it was to be expected that Ukraine would lose some Western-provided military equipment in the fighting.
But the Washington-based think tank added that “any loss among Ukraine’s already limited allotment” of F-16s and trained pilots “will have an outsized impact” on the country’s ability to operate F-16s “as part of its combined air defense umbrella or in an air-to-ground support role.”
In other developments, European Union defense ministers agreed in Brussels to boost their training program for Ukrainian troops.
“Today the ministers agreed to raising the target to 75,000, adding 15,000 more by the end of the year,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters after the meeting.
“The training has to be shortened and adapted to the Ukrainian training needs,” Borrell said. He added that the EU would set up a small “coordination and liaison cell” in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to make the training effort more effective.
So far, 60,000 troops have passed through the EU training course, which is conducted outside Ukraine.
Novikov writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
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