NYT suspects that F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine was probably not shot down by “friendly fire”

The shooting down of an American F-16 fighter jet was probably not caused by friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery, the New York Times reported on August 31, citing two unnamed senior U.S. military officials.

The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed on August 29 that the F-16, which had recently been delivered to the country and was piloted by Oleksii Mes, crashed on August 26 while repelling a massive Russian drone and missile attack. Mes was killed in the crash.

The cause of the accident is still unclear, but initial investigations indicate that the F-16 was shot down by a Patriot air defense system, The Telegraph reported on August 31.

According to the New York Times, American and Ukrainian investigators are investigating different versions of the crash, including a mechanical failure or pilot error.

Following the F-16 crash, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, on August 30. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov stated that his dismissal had no connection with the fatal accident.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has also set up a special commission to investigate the cause of the crash. Oleshchuk said Ukraine had received a preliminary report from the United States, which is now part of the investigation.

At the same time, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on August 29 that she was “not aware of any assistance or request for assistance from the Ukrainian side to us regarding this particular incident.”

Singh declined to discuss further details of the crash and repeatedly stressed that such questions should be referred to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine received its first F-16s in early August, a year after its allies formed the fighter jet coalition at the NATO summit in Vilnius to support Kyiv with training and aircraft.