US military is skeptical of the official Kyiv version of the F-16 crash

According to the newspaper, American military officials doubt that the Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by friendly fire from the Ukrainian military.

The loss of the F-16 fighter jet provided to Kyiv is likely not related to friendly fire from the Ukrainian military, claims The New York Times, citing two unnamed high-ranking US military officials.

The newspaper quotes the officials as saying that friendly fire was probably not the cause of the F-16 crash. However, it does not specify what evidence they based their statement on or what alternative versions of the incident they proposed.

Meanwhile, US military officials told the newspaper that investigators in both the US and Ukraine are exploring multiple possible causes of the F-16’s loss.

An unnamed Ukrainian Air Force pilot complained to the publication about problems within Ukraine’s Air Force, citing entrenched bureaucracy and outdated structures.

The Ukrainian General Staff acknowledged the loss of the F-16 on August 29, and a special commission is investigating the cause of the crash.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that the plane crashed due to a pilot error. Ukrainian MP Mariyana Bezuhla claimed that the F-16 was shot down by the Ukrainian military’s own Patriot air defense system due to a coordination failure between units.

According to the obituary of Ukrainian pilot Alexei Mesya, he was killed on August 26 while carrying out a combat mission.

Furthermore, Sergei Lebedev, a coordinator of pro-Russian underground groups, reported on August 27 that an airstrike on a military airfield in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnytskyi region, had hit a facility where Ukrainian pilots were being trained by foreign instructors.

On August 30, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky fired the Commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, Nikolai Oleshchuk. Although the reasons for his dismissal were not specified, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov commented on the move on August 31, calling it a “rotation” unrelated to the F-16 crash.