Ukrainian pilot who led push for F-16s dies in training exercise

Obtain free Conflict in Ukraine updates

We’ll ship you a myFT Every day Digest e mail rounding up the most recent Conflict in Ukraine information each morning.

One in every of Ukraine’s most well-known fighter pilots who performed a outstanding public function in pushing western allies to offer Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets has died in a coaching train.

The aviator, publicly recognized by his name signal “Juice”, was killed on Friday in a crash which additionally claimed the lives of two different pilots, Ukrainian authorities stated.

His demise got here simply days after the Biden administration dropped its longstanding reservations and accredited the switch of dozens of the US-made multipurpose fighters from the Netherlands and Denmark.

Norway has since additionally pledged a few of its F-16s and different international locations together with the US, Poland and Romania are to assist prepare Ukrainian pilots to fly them.

Juice was among the many fighters who defended Ukraine’s skies within the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion final yr and had hoped to be amongst these educated to fly F-16s.

“We’re unhappy to announce that on August 25, 2023, a horrible aircraft crash occurred . . . the crews of two L-39 coaching and fight plane collided within the sky,” Ukraine’s air pressure stated in an announcement on Saturday.

“Among the many lifeless is a widely known pilot of the fortieth Tactical Aviation Brigade with the decision signal Juice,” the air pressure stated. “It is a painful and irreparable loss for all of us.”

In his each day deal with to the nation, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy recognized Juice as Andriy Pilschykov.

“He’s a kind of who a lot helped our nation,” he stated. “Ukraine will always remember everybody who protected the free skies of Ukraine.”

Juice was a daily interviewee for a lot of media retailers. He defined how Ukrainian pilots — flying an ageing fleet of Soviet plane — prevented Russia’s a lot bigger and extra superior forces from attaining air superiority.

They undertook missions to intercept incoming Russian missiles and drones concentrating on cities and infrastructure in addition to navy targets.

Juice, who was fluent in English and a local of the japanese Kharkiv area, argued for F-16s to offer cowl for Ukraine’s floor troops in opposition to Russian fighter jets’ longer-range radar and missile methods.

“Juice was the driving pressure behind the F-16 advocacy from day one — we’ve to recognise and immortalise his legacy,” stated Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, who labored on the initiative intently with pilots and officers.

“He was a particularly good man . . . so beloved by so many,” Sak added.

In a Fb publish, Pavlo Potseluiev who knew Juice wrote: “You dreamt of F-16s and waited for information about their switch. You really liked your chicken and actually lived within the sky.”

Juice, who flew a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet, was one in all Ukraine’s youthful breed of pilots who obtained western coaching within the years after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

In an interview earlier this yr he advised the FT that he was given the nickname which turned his name signal by US pilots throughout a joint coaching train, as a result of he drank fruit juice relatively than alcoholic drinks after they had been at a bar collectively.

Just lately, he had develop into annoyed at how lengthy it was taking for western allies to offer superior navy jets to Ukraine.

“If we wait six months extra, we are going to get to the second once we can have solely reservist grandpas, not younger pilots with good data, good coaching,” he advised the FT in February.

However he responded positively when it was introduced that the US had lastly accredited a request to ship the primary batch of F-16s to Ukraine.