New footage appears to show a Ukraine-operated, U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet intercepting an incoming attack, providing a rare glimpse into Kyiv’s use of the fourth-generation jets it started receiving last year.
Ukraine now operates a handful of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, although Washington has not directly provided the platforms to Kyiv and many of the pledged aircraft have not yet arrived in the country.
Kyiv had clamored for F-16s for many, many months before the Western-made jets were finally deployed in Ukraine in late summer 2024.
Yet despite the pomp that enveloped their unveiling, relatively little has been heard about the long-awaited jets. They were quickly put into defensive roles but have stayed under the radar, and there is a sticky sense that they simply came far too late to make a real difference to Ukraine’s war effort.
A widely circulating social media clip purports to show one of Ukraine’s handful of F-16 jets intercepting an unspecified aerial target. In the distance, a fighter jet can be seen moving away from the camera as grey smoke consumes an unknown object.
One open-source intelligence account claimed the intercepted object was a drone.
Ukraine initially leaned on the F-16s to beef up its air defence against incoming Russian attacks, a trend that has likely continued as a continued shortage of air defence systems and interceptor missiles bites.
Ukraine’s air force said on April 24 that its F-16s and French-donated Mirage fighters were actively involved in defending against combined drone and missile attacks overnight.
“Ukrainian pilots have shot down dozens of air targets,” the air force added in a statement.
At least two Ukrainian pilots have died operating F-16s since last summer, including 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov, who died “while performing a combat mission” in an F-16 on April 12, the air force said.
Another pilot, named by Ukraine as Oleksiy Mes, died while “repelling a massive Russian combined air and missile attack” in an F-16 in late August 2024. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed shortly after Denmark donated the downed jet.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that “friendly fire likely was involved” in Mes’ death, citing unnamed sources.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the arrival of the American-made jets in early August 2024: “F-16s in Ukraine. We did it.”
Ukrainian war reporter Andriy Tsaplienko on Telegram: “An F-16 shot down a “Shahed” drone over the Khmelnytskyi region this morning.”
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