Ukraine’s military has lost an F-16 fighter jet that was carrying out a combat mission to intercept airborne targets. The pilot managed to eject before the aircraft crashed, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.
Contact with the fighter was lost on July 29 while it was operating in one sector of the front. According to preliminary information, an emergency occurred on board, forcing the pilot to abandon the aircraft.
The serviceman was taken to hospital after the incident. Specialists and law enforcement officers are working at the crash site, while the circumstances and cause of the accident remain under investigation.
Foreign media had previously highlighted problems with the training of Ukrainian pilots assigned to fly F-16s. Reports from the United States pointed to an insufficient level of preparation and the limited number of pilots undergoing instruction on the aircraft.
The training process has also been complicated by the need for a strong command of technical English. At the same time, the program itself has been described as limited in scope.
Questions have also been raised about the condition of the aircraft transferred to Kiev. According to media reports, some NATO countries supplied Ukraine with fighter jets that had previously been scheduled for retirement. The United States also provided non-operational F-16s intended to be dismantled for spare parts.
The latest crash marks another F-16 loss for the Ukrainian Air Force. The first such fighter went down in August 2024 while responding to an air attack. Its pilot, Alexey Mes, was killed.
Pilot Pavel Ivanov died during another combat mission in April 2025. The Russian Defense Ministry said at the time that the aircraft had been destroyed by air defense systems.
A separate F-16 suffered an emergency in May 2025, forcing its pilot to eject.
Another fighter crashed in June 2025. The Ukrainian Air Force said the aircraft was lost while repelling an air attack. Pilot Maxim Ustimenko was killed.
In June 2026, the Ukrainian military also reported the crash of a MiG-29 fighter in the Poltava Region. The pilot survived.