A Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet crashed while carrying out a frontline combat mission on July 29, with its pilot ejecting safely, Ukraine’s air force said. The aircraft was on a mission intercepting Russian airborne targets, part of the air force’s ongoing effort to shoot down cruise missiles and long-range strike drones, when it suffered an in-flight emergency. The pilot was recovered and taken for medical treatment, and an investigation into the cause of the malfunction is underway.
The loss is the latest in a string of F-16 incidents since Ukraine began flying the Western-supplied jets in combat, underscoring the strain the small fleet faces as it works around the clock to counter Russia’s persistent missile and drone campaigns. Ukraine has received F-16s from several European allies as part of a broader push to modernize its air force, but the jets remain few in number relative to the scale of nightly Russian attacks.
In a separate incident, the director and founder of a Russian drone manufacturer was shot and wounded in what Russian prosecutors described as an attempted murder. Andrei Cherezov, head of the Russian Air Transport Laboratory, which developed the Ovod family of combat drones used by Russian forces, was attacked while returning home, according to reports cited by Ukrainian and Russian outlets covering the incident.
On the same night, Ukrainian forces said they struck two of Russia’s largest oil refineries in long-range drone attacks. One target was a Lukoil refinery in the Perm region, more than 1,500 kilometers from Ukrainian territory, while the other was a refinery in Ryazan, roughly 400 kilometers from the border. Ukraine’s security service and its military general staff both claimed responsibility for the strikes, which are part of a sustained campaign to degrade Russia’s fuel-refining capacity and the revenue it generates for the war effort.
Russian forces also struck back at Ukrainian territory, hitting the city of Kharkiv and 17 other locations in the surrounding region with glide bombs over a 24-hour period, wounding 11 people, regional officials said. Kharkiv, close to the Russian border, has faced sustained bombardment throughout the war given its proximity to Russian launch sites, making glide bomb strikes especially difficult to intercept because of their short flight times.
Ukraine’s air force has not disclosed how many F-16s it currently operates, citing operational security, but Western officials have acknowledged the fleet remains limited even as deliveries continue from Denmark, the Netherlands and other donor nations. Kyiv has repeatedly asked allies to speed up training of additional pilots and maintenance crews to expand the fleet’s operational tempo.
The overlapping incidents, an aircraft loss on the Ukrainian side, an assassination attempt against a Russian drone executive, deep strikes on Russian refineries and renewed glide bomb attacks on Kharkiv, illustrate the multi-front nature of the war as it grinds through its fifth summer, with neither side showing signs of pulling back from long-range strikes.
Sources: Kyiv Independent, United24 Media, Ukrinform