Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has paid tribute to fighter pilot who was credited with protecting Kyiv the early days of the Russian invasion before he died in a mid-air crash during a combat mission.
Maj. Andriy Pilshchykov who went by the call sign “Juice” helped Ukraine “a lot,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post, adding that the collision which claimed the lives of two other pilots, Maj. Vyacheslav Minka and Maj. Sergey Prokazhin, was a “disaster.”
“Ukraine will never forget anyone who defended Ukraine’s free sky,” Zelenskyy added. “May they always be remembered!”
A member of the 40th tactical aviation division, Pilshchykov served in the corps tasked with countering Russian attacks on the nation’s capital during the Kyiv Offensive, in the first two months of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.”
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in a separate post on Facebook that Pilshchykov was “a young officer with remarkable knowledge and mega talent,” adding that he “dreamed of F-16s in the Ukrainian sky.”
Pilshchykov, Ihnat said, “gave dozens of interviews to Western media, because he knew English well, and most importantly — he understood the subject matter of conversation, what can and should be talked about for Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that the pilots were killed Friday, after two L-39 combat trainer aircrafts collided in mid-air over the Zhytomyr region in northern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force said. An investigation into the crash has been launched, it added.
News of Pilshchykov’s death came less than a week after Danish and Dutch lawmakers announced that they would both supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, after Washington gave the green light in August to transfer the powerful American-made warplanes.
Denmark promised 19 of its jets, while the Netherlands pledged 42 last Sunday.
The fighters are undoubtedly an upgrade for a country that has been using ageing Soviet-era combat planes and has been forced into waves of vulnerable ground assaults.
Though airforce spokesperson Ihnat said that the F-16 will “completely change the course of combat actions,” analysts have warned that the jets might not make a significant impact on the battlefield, with the timeline for their deployment unclear, and a lack of air support already a major handicap for the Ukrainian military’s assault against Russian defenses.
Mechanics, engineers and pilots need to be trained over several months to operate the advanced jets, meaning it could be until next summer at the earliest for squadrons to be ready for battle.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the promise of F-16s as an escalation of the conflict.
President Joe Biden’s decision to authorize allies to begin training Ukrainian pilots on how to operate the warplanes came in May — before authorization was later given for their use in the war.
Pilshchykov and the 40th tactical aviation division primarily used Russian-made MiG29, a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed by the Soviet Union, which first entered use in 1983.
