Zelensky Fires Air Force Commander After Ukraine F-16 Was Downed By Friendly Fire

President Zelensky has fired Ukraine’s longtime Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk, according to a just published official government decree issued Friday night (local).

The major surprise development comes the day after the Ukrainian government belatedly confirmed that on Monday a US-made F-16 fighter jet was destroyed or crashed amid a major Russian missile and drone assault on the country. The Wall Street Journal had called the crash and death “a major blow for Kyiv” following President Biden’s somewhat reluctant greenlight given for European allies to begin transferring the F-16s last year.

That aircraft downing, which is surrounded in ambiguity given Kiev initially claimed that it was not shot down, but that it crashed – killed the man widely considered to be Ukraine’s top pilot Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes.

Zelensky said that Mes crashed while busy intercepting inbound Russian projectiles which were pummeling several oblasts across Ukraine in the huge attack which started early this week.

The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Oleshchuk has been formally published on the presidential website. “We need to protect people. Protect personnel. Take care of all our soldiers,” Zelensky said in an accompanying brief address. He further cited the need to protect and solidify the military at the command level. Oleshchuk had been overseeing an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the F-16 downing:

Oleshchuk said an investigation was ongoing into what caused the “aviation disaster,” adding that the United States had joined the investigation.

“No one has hidden anything and is not hiding anything!” he wrote on Telegram. Ukrainian lawmaker Mariana Bezuhla had alleged in a post on social media that there was a “culture of lies” in the Air Force. “And none of the generals are punished,” she wrote on Thursday. She appeared to call for Oleshchuk’s removal, writing, “General Oleschuk remains in office.”

Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko has now been appointed as acting air force commander, according to a fresh statement by the army’s general staff.

The firing of the top general comes after it emerged yesterday that the West-supplied fighter jet, which was handed over to Ukraine only earlier this month, may have been downed by a Ukrainian Patriot air defense system in a friendly fire incident. That’s according to Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuglaya as cited by TASS on Thursday.

⚡️ President Zelensky has fired Ukraine’s Air Force commander Mykola Oleschuk. Presidential decree published tonight. It comes after the first Ukrainian F-16 was destroyed, killing top pilot Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes on Monday. pic.twitter.com/9d52YpdJ3W

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 30, 2024

“According to my information, the F-16 of the Ukrainian pilot Alexey ‘Moonfish’ Mes was shot down by the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system due to a lack of coordination between the [military] units,” she wrote on Telegram.

The lawmaker criticized the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for falsely describing the incident as “a crash.” However, the Ukrainian government has not yet acknowledged or confirmed the specifics of what actually happened.

According to U.S. Defense Officials; during Monday’s Large-Scale Russian Missile Attack against Ukraine, a F-16 with the Ukrainian Air Force crashed in the West of the Country, resulting in the Death of its Pilot, known by his Callsign “Moonfish” but by others as Oleksiy Mes.… pic.twitter.com/vUcvWslIQx

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 29, 2024

“The culture of lies in the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as in other higher military headquarters, leads to the fact that the system of managing military decisions does not improve on the basis of truthful, consistently collected analytics, but deteriorates and even collapses, as is happening in the other directions,” she wrote.

Is this major command shake-up and reshuffling by Zelensky part of efforts to suppress what actually happened?