Ihor Polishchuk, the mayor of Lutsk, informed today that on 26 August 2024, pidpolkovnyk Oleksiy Mes died while performing a combat mission. He was a MiG-29 pilot from the 204 Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force.
Ihor Polishchuk already removed the information about the death of pidpolkovnyk Mes, but it is still visible in the edit history. The Volyn News portal also deleted a previously published article about the death of pidpolkovnyk Oleksiy Mes. facebook.com/ihor.polishchu…
There are some rumors that pidpolkovnyk Oleksiy Mes was a trained F-16 pilot. I don't know if this is true or just false assumption based on the fact that Mes once flew as an observer in F-15D while visiting 144th Fighter Wing of the California ANG. sprotyv.info/photo/ukrainsk…
@Rebel44CZ Apparently another Ukrainian Air Force fighter jet was lost, most likely a MiG-29.
Unfortunately pidpolkovnyk Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes was a F-16 pilot. He was among the first group of Ukrainian pilots trained in Denmark.
The fact that Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes was among the first pilots trained on the F-16 doesn't necessarily mean that he died in an F-16. The standard phrasing "died during combat mission" can refer to anything, he might as well have died in a missile attack on one of the air bases.
Regardless of how he died, it is a great loss as pidpolkovnyk Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes was one of the few Ukrainian F-16 pilots currently available.
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A thread about two Ukrainian Mi-8s shot down on 5 April 2022. The 1st one was returning with wounded from Azovstal when it was downed several km before reaching friendly territory. Major Horoshko and starshyy leytenant Sindiy were KIA, kapitan Chichura is still missing.
There were between 9 and 15 wounded soldiers on board, at least 2 were KIA. The 2nd Mi-8 attempted to rescue the survivors but was also shot down while approaching to land near the crash site of the 1st Mi-8.
The crew of the 2nd Mi-8: polkovnyk Voronyi KIA, kapitan Burlakov POW and the navigator Pylypenko MIA. Four person rescue/fire team from the GUR MO was also on board: kapitan Borovytskyi, serzhant Klepikov and molodshyi serzhant Gavrylenko, all KIA, Dobrovolsky MIA.
Before the full-scale war, the base was used for training purposes by the Kharkiv National Air Force University. In this sat imagery taken on 2 September 2017 you can see L-39 trainers parked on the apron.
After the start of the full-scale war, the base began to be expanded to prepare it for an increased military presence. Between July and August 2022, additional parking spots (most likely with revetments) were built in the NW end of the apron. Coordinates: 48.790900, 30.208376
On 22 August 2024, a Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out a massive OWA UAV strike on the Marinovka Air Base, Volgograd Oblast, Russia. This should be a reasonably short thread.
This one is a little less obvious. In the sat photo from 25 April 2024 a Su-24M or MR is parked here 48.638739, 43.778199. On 19 August it seems to be still there (@MT_Anderson can you please post a zoom in). On 22 Aug there is a burn mark and debris, I think it was destroyed.
Interestingly, both airframes shown on the ground during the ceremony have IFF "bird slicer" antennas of the older type used on F-16As with ADF modification. My bet is that these two airframes are not airworthy and were obtained from the US to be used as decoys.
Another photo of ex-Royal Danish Air Force F-16AM in the Ukrainian service,