According to media reports, three pilots were killed in a collision between two planes in Ukraine on Saturday. Two L-39 training jets collided in mid-air Friday night in the Zhytomyr region, sources said. Among the victims is the pilot Andriy Pilschchykov, known by his pseudonym “Juice”.
His friend Pavlo Pozeluyev confirmed Pilschchykov’s death on social media. Pilshchykov was a pilot of the MiG-29 fighter jet and had taken part in a number of air battles since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, including in the defense of Kiev. In interviews with Western media, he had repeatedly asked for the delivery of Western F-16 fighter jets.
Zelenskyj mourned in video speech and Twitter (X)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commemorated the three pilots in the evening. “My condolences to the bereaved and confidants, to all who knew the young men,” he said in his daily video address on Saturday. Zelensky recalled that Pilschchykov made significant contributions to the air defense of Ukraine in defense against Russian aggression.
Ukraine gets F-16 fighter jets
Selenskyj promised a full clarification of the incident. For Kiev, the reputation of its own fighter pilots is of great importance, as Ukraine has been asking its Western allies for modern fighter jets for months. Kiev has now received commitments from various countries for the training of fighter pilots and the delivery of F-16 fighter jets.
The Ukrainian president only commented on the ongoing fighting at the front. He thanked the soldiers for their efforts on the various battlefields, focusing on the fighting around Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and near the village of Robotyne in the south of the country. However, he did not give details about developments at the front.
Source: Krone
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