Russia-Ukraine war: F-16 Fighter Jet Crash in Ukraine: Russian Attack or Friendly Fire? | Gravitas

our next story is about the mystery of the F-16 crash in Ukraine a month after receiving the most advanced fourth generation F-16 fighter jet Ukraine has lost the war plane along with the pilot flying this coveted jet so what really happened just 2 days before the incident Ukrainian Pilots flew the American made war planes in combat For the First Time The Fighter chat went down on Monday when Russia launched a major missile en Ro Barrage at Ukraine but you see jets are not supposed to just crash from the sky was it sh down by Russians was it a technical issue was it pilot error or did friendly fire from Ukrainian air defenses bring the jet down details about the crash are scarce Ukraine has not disclosed the cause of the crash but all possibilities are currently under investigation here's what has happened so far earlier this month a batch of the US made F-16 fighter jets was delivered to Ukraine after months of appeal by the war battered country on Monday Ukraine began using the kitted Jets for the first time in war as Russia mounted a massive aerial assault on Tuesday Ukrainian leader W zalinski confirmed that the Jets had seen action during a massive Russian missile attack the day before by Thursday evening Ukraine's general staff said that contact was lost with one of the planes as it followed a Target in fact the statement said and I'm quoting now the plane crashed and the pilot died and now the defense Ministry in Kev has established a special commission to investigate the crash you see this is the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine f-16s are the most sophisticated weapon that the US Leed coalition has supplied Ukraine with in its war with Russia the White House and Pentagon had resisted offering them earlier fearing that they would be seen as an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin before us allies supplied the fighter jets to Ukraine Pilots were trained to fly them for months in the United States at least six of the war planes are believed to have been delivered to Ukraine now what are the authorities really saying like I mentioned earlier the Ukrainian defense Ministry has opened an investigation into the crash in a Facebook post the Ukrainian Air Force identified the pilot as Colonel alexe MoonFish mess they said he saved ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles at the cost of his own life MoonFish along with fellow Ukrainian pilot andry ju p chikov uh made a very public visit to the US in June 202 2 he was part basically of the Ukrainian delegation pressing American lawmakers and the media to send F16 fighter chess to Ukraine both continued to serve as public faces for Ukraine's battle to secure its airspace but juice was killed in an August 2023 accident and now MoonFish has died in the crash us Congressmen have expressed grief at the news of his death on the platform X formerly Twitter former US congressman Adam kinzinger has said and I'm quoting when I met with Ukraine Pilots juice and MoonFish I had a sick feeling they would not make it through the war they fought like hell for Ukraine and the F-16 but here's where the plot sickens today a Ukrainian lawmaker Mariana Bez bezug accused the Ukrainian military of trying to downplay the loss of the F-16 jet saying basically that it may have been destroyed by friendly fire in a post on telegram Bea said and I'm quoting according to my information the F-16 piloted by alexe MoonFish mess was hit by a patriate anti-aircraft missile system due to discoordination between units she continued I'm quoting further war is war such episodes are possible but a culture of Lies leads to a management system for military decisions that does not improve based on truthful consistently collected analytics but worsens and even collapses as seen in the Perros Direction she was basically referring to Russia's recent advance in the city of prros so what really happened what caused the crash if what bezug is saying is indeed true it would be a setback an embarrassment for Ukraine to see the least the country remember has been urging the us to supply the Jets for months now Russia had said that the American M Jets will not make a difference on the battlefield in fact Russia has promised that they will destroy the NATO Jets just like the other Western Hardware provided to Ukraine since the start of the war that's what their position has been what we are hearing also is that a Russian company has offered a reward of 15 million rubles that's $170,000 to whomsoever shoots down the first F-16 in combat no one has stepped forward to claim the reward so far the question is is Ukraine getting more f-16s Belgium Denmark the Netherlands Norway all NATO members have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of these planes however that number is dwarfed by the Russian jet fighter Fleet which is around 10 times larger Ukraine needs at least 130 F-16 fighter jets to neutralize Russian air power we are not saying that Ukraine is but the question is could the f-16s actually change the course of the war military experts do not sound very optimistic they say that the f-16s in itself will not be game changers given Russia's massive Air Force and sophisticated air defense systems however you Ukrainian officials welcome the Jets as offering an opportunity to basically hit back at Russia's air Superior superiority when it comes to the question of what makes the F-16 so special here's what you need to know the f-16s are among the most advanced fourth generation fighter jets they can fly at speeds of up to twice the speed of sound and have a maximum range of over 2,000 miles that's 3,200 km they are also capable of firing modern weapons used by NATO countries but what good is an advanced jet if it's not fully utilized in war for a long time Ukrainian officials have insisted that Western countries must lift the restrictions on what Ukraine is allowed to Target inside Russia using the long range weapons they have provided and so the loss of this F-16 jet comes at a crucial moment as the Ukrainian President W zalinski has renewed his please urging Ukraine's Western allies to un die his hands when it comes to deciding what to strike on Russian soil although it's not proven yet any possibility that the F-16 was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses due to Friendly Fire would definitely shake the confidence of Western allies after all if NATO weapons are not safe in Ukrainian hands can they be trusted to use them to strike deeper into Russia can NATO leaders afford to look the other way while that happens Russia M has long insisted that Ukraine's use of long range Western weapons against Russian against Russian territory would cross a red line any miscalculation on Ukraine's part could escalate the conflict and drag the NATO into a direct war with Russia can the NATO afford that is the question and the answer to that question depends on whether they trust Ukraine to handle their equipment with care until then we will just have to wait and watch to stay up to speed with the latest news download the weon app And subscribe to our YouTube channel