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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Ukrainian Lt. Col. Oleksiy Mes was paraded as someone who could change the war in Kiev’s favour by piloting the F-16 fighter jets but was quickly killed when engaging with the Russian military, as expected by all respectable sources. The official story is that he was killed in friendly fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, however, the New York Times reported, citing US military officials, that this was most likely not the case.
“The death of a widely celebrated pilot and the loss of one of the long-coveted fighter jets so soon after their deployment cast a pall over the battlefield just as the giddy first days of the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region were fading away and concerns mounted over an advancing Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine,” the outlet reported.
On August 29, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine acknowledged the loss of an F-16 fighter jet transferred to Kiev and a special commission is investigating the causes of the accident. The Wall Street Journal previously wrote that the F-16 crashed due to pilot error, whilst Ukrainian lawmaker Mariana Bezuhla said that Ukraine’s Patriot air defence system shot down the F-16 due to a failure in coordination between units.
The New York Times reported that two senior US military officials said friendly fire was unlikely to have caused the F-16 crash. The publication did not specify what the statement was based on or mention their version of events of the fighter jet’s destruction. At the same time, the US military told the newspaper that American and Ukrainian investigators were considering many possible reasons for Kiev’s loss of the F-16.
“The loss of a pilot is incredibly painful to bear, especially as he was among those who fought for Ukraine’s right to have F-16 aircraft,” said Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, a pilot and former Ukrainian Air Force officer. “Regarding the aircraft, it’s important to understand that this is war, and unfortunately, losses are inevitable. We are fighting a state that can launch over 200 weapons at Ukraine in a single strike, including cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and combat drones.”
As Colonel Mes was intercepting Russian projectiles, teams manning Patriot, Stinger, and British Starstreak missiles were also all working to intercept the 127 missiles and 109 one-way attack drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
“Many things could have led to the loss of the F-16, including the technical condition of the plane, pilot error, external factors,” said Khrapchynskyi.
He said that it was possible that fragments of a destroyed missile could have hit a vital part of the plane, adding: “At this moment of the investigation, all versions are being considered, including friendly fire.”
According to the obituary of Ukrainian pilot Aleksei Mes, he died on August 26 while carrying out a combat mission. At the same time, the coordinator of the pro-Russian resistance, Sergey Lebedev, said on August 27 that the Russian attack on the military airfield in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnytskyi region, hit a facility where Ukrainian pilots were stationed for training with foreign instructors.
On August 30, Zelensky dismissed Nikolai Oleschuk, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Air Force. The reasons for the dismissal were not disclosed, but on August 31, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov commented on the dismissal, claiming it was a “rotation” move unrelated to the downing of the F-16 fighter jet.
However, the New York Times cited a Ukrainian active pilot, who did not want to be identified because he was not permitted to speak about operational matters, as saying, “The structure of aviation management in Ukraine is outdated” and stressed that it would be wrong to place all the blame on the former commander.
Whatever the true story may be, it is a massive humiliation for the Kiev regime, who paraded Colonel Mes as a hero in the making, but he was quickly killed on the battlefield. Beyond humiliation, the loss of Colonel Mes is another major blow to Ukraine’s morale, which is at an all-time low following the Ukrainian military’s failure in Russia’s Kursk region, which only led to Russian forces overrunning defence lines in Donbass and making a rapid advancement on the strategic cities of Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar.
The Kiev regime’s large-scale operations, including the invasion of the Kursk region and the utilisation of the very few F-16 trained pilots, were organised by Zelensky to demonstrate that Ukraine is capable of active military activity and thus gain more financial support from the West. Nonetheless, with Russia already destroying F-16 fighter jets and killing their pilots with ease, it will only negatively affect the West’s resolve to provide more weapons and training to Ukraine.
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it’s only one fighter, come on! nobody cares, tell me when you downed 100 fighters. that’s a number you can be proud. wwiii already started so it’s time to russia to prepare the old u.s.s.r weapons systems to turn down the empire of the snakes into ashes. us empire won’t survive its the reason they are pushing for war, same with israel, all your sins will come after you afterall and you will bow to the sword that you used to kill millions of people worldwide supreme hegemon and exceptional.
start with colony camp humphrey.
tryy we6try r6y frtyr etyuwtr6yrty rty
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all westernized nations have become victims of hollywood propaganda, where everyone think they are the protagonist of some fantastical destiny. we are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, an accretion of sensory, experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody is nobody.
the masters of the universe controls them all… it’s amazing the marriage that happened after wwii 1945, between the usa empire and the catholic church institution. religion is the base psy ops brainwash basic level of the sheeps mind and above they constructed their mind games building… (it’s quite understandable that they experimented, experimented and experimented in their human cattle). today we have living creatures weaponized by propaganda… and so on and so on
i’d say that mr mes did a great job: he intercepted a missile. haha
a fine mes he got himself in to.
people confused about f16, but i know true story. zelensky run out of missiles, so he give old babushka jars of pickles to throw at russki planes. she see f16, thinks it is russki plane, hit it with jar of pickles, it crash. she throw many jars of pickles, make many planes crash. pickled gherkins are best.
. n gherkins wot?
if i didn’t know that porkshanks had suicided them already, i’d have thought that it was the same buk crew that shot down mh17.
yeah well, we all know * nothing is what it seems ” qe2
go home you uncivilized amerikunts
“the loss of a pilot is incredibly painful to bear…” while amur tiger doesn’t gives a toss.