While speaking at the "Ukraine 2024. Independence" forum, Ukrainian President Zelensky made his first public announcement confirming the combat use of Western-supplied F-16 fighters. His announcement reads below:."The F-16 is a very good result, a lot of people talked about it. Already within the framework of a massive Russian missile attack (August 26, – ed.), we shot down some missiles with the help of the F-16. We thank our partners for providing us with these fighters…We have proposals for the USA and everything depends on their permission.".The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had launched a large-scale air attack against Ukraine at approximately 1800 EST on August 26th which continued throughout the night. Ukrainian authorities reported six people were killed as power infrastructure was struck in Zaporizhia Oblast, Kyiv, Kherson Oblast, and other areas. More than 90 projectiles (mostly Iranian drones and some missiles from Long Range Aviation Command assets) were launched..The use of F-16s in a defensive role is much more risk-averse than deploying them against Russian fighters which are heavily protected by forward deployed integrated air defense systems (IADS) on the front..On August 1st, 2024, the initial batch of western-supplied F-16s reportedly arrived in Ukraine, probably 10 airframes and six fully qualified pilots.
While speaking at the "Ukraine 2024. Independence" forum, Ukrainian President Zelensky made his first public announcement confirming the combat use of Western-supplied F-16 fighters. His announcement reads below:."The F-16 is a very good result, a lot of people talked about it. Already within the framework of a massive Russian missile attack (August 26, – ed.), we shot down some missiles with the help of the F-16. We thank our partners for providing us with these fighters…We have proposals for the USA and everything depends on their permission.".The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had launched a large-scale air attack against Ukraine at approximately 1800 EST on August 26th which continued throughout the night. Ukrainian authorities reported six people were killed as power infrastructure was struck in Zaporizhia Oblast, Kyiv, Kherson Oblast, and other areas. More than 90 projectiles (mostly Iranian drones and some missiles from Long Range Aviation Command assets) were launched..The use of F-16s in a defensive role is much more risk-averse than deploying them against Russian fighters which are heavily protected by forward deployed integrated air defense systems (IADS) on the front..On August 1st, 2024, the initial batch of western-supplied F-16s reportedly arrived in Ukraine, probably 10 airframes and six fully qualified pilots.
