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Ukrainian F-16 Fighter Pilot Killed in Action.
A Ukrainian pilot flying an F-16 Viper jet was killed during a combat mission on Saturday, Ukraine’s Air Force wrote on Telegram.
The military said in a statement that an investigation had been launched into the death of 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov, without providing further details.
Saturday’s loss is only the second confirmed F-16 loss that Ukraine has faced, delivering a symbolic blow to Kyiv’s forces. The F-16 aircraft are more advanced than the Soviet-era aircraft Ukraine’s forces had been using for much of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that began in February 2022. The aircrafts delivery from European allies was also hoped to change the battlefield calculus.
Ukraine’s Air Force did not reveal the location, or many details about the incident in its statement on Telegram, which started with “unfortunately, sad news.”
It said that Ivanov had been killed while in a combat mission on an F-16 aircraft and in expressing condolences said that he had died in battle “defending his native land from the occupiers,” according to a translation.
The statement went on to say that Ukraine’s F-16 pilots almost every day perform combat missions “in incredibly difficult conditions” providing cover for aviation strike groups and striking enemy targets.
It also said that pilots are working to the maximum of human and technical capabilities, risking their lives each time. “All the circumstances of the tragedy are being established by an interdepartmental commission,” Ukraine’s Air Force added.
Russian and Ukrainian milbloggers claimed on Telegram that the aircraft was brought down by a surface-to-air missile (SAM) amid speculation as to whether the plane was shot down by Russian forces or from friendly fire from Ukrainian air defenses, although neither explanation has been independently confirmed.
It is the second confirmed death of a Ukrainian F-16 pilot. On August 26, 2024, Oleksii “Moonfish” Mes, was killed when he was reportedly responding to a Russian missile attack.
He had visited the United States in 2022 to lobby for the aircraft to be sent to Ukraine. In May 2023, the Biden administration allowed other countries to provide Kyiv with the U.S.-made aircraft.
Separately, Ukraine’s Khortytsia Operational-Strategic Group of Forces said that Russian forces are preparing for renewed assault in the Kharkiv Oblast in northeast Ukraine.
In the Kupiansk area, Ukrainian troops thwarted Russian assault attempts and Russian forces launched attacks in the Lyman sector on the border of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, which were repelled, The Kyiv Independent reported on Saturday.
Ukraine’s Air Force said in its statement on Telegram: “On April 12, 2025, 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov died while performing a combat mission on an F-16 aircraft. We express our deepest condolences to his family.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement: “We need reports from the military on this combat situation. We are investigating all the circumstances.”
General Christopher G. Cavoli, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee last week that F-16s are flying daily in defensive and offensive missions in comments which show the fourth-generation aircraft will continue to play a key role for Ukraine’s forces.
Ukraine has received an unspecified number of the aircraft from European countries, mostly the Netherlands and Denmark, with more promised by Belgium and Norway.
In negotiations to end the war, President Donald Trump‘s U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday. On the same day, the White House expressed frustration at Moscow and Kyiv over the lack of progress in peace talks.