The past week was marked by one of the most massive Russian attacks in Ukrainian rear regions since the very beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation. On Monday August 26, dozens of Ukrainian military, industrial and strategic energy facilities were struck. Since then, Russian drones and missiles have continued attacks throughout Ukraine every day. The night of August 30 was not an exception.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Ukraine was targeted by 18 kamikaze UAVs and one Iskander-M missile. The air defense forces allegedly destroyed 12 Russian drones.
The Ukrainian military command is famous for hiding its real losses. That’s why local reports about fires and explosions across the country are more reliable sources of information that allow to assess the scale of the damage.
One of today’s Russian strikes resulted in a large toxic fire in Sumy. The city hosts some production facilities of the chemical industry as well as large military warehouses used for operations in the Kursk region.
A series of strikes destroyed targets in the southern city of Odessa. The local authorities confirmed damage to the local port. According to local reports, a launcher of the US-made Patriot air defense system was destroyed. The deployment of the western missile system should have protected the precious cargo from NATO but failed.
At night, Russian UAVs struck the large Nadezhda gas pumping station in the Poltava region. More drones strikes were reported in Dnepropetrovsk, Vinnytsya and other regions.
The depleted Ukrainian air defense can no longer cope with the massive Russian attacks. The air defense forces have suffered heavy losses during the years of hostilities. The remaining air defense systems were deployed near the front, including in the Sumy region, where they are ground down by Russian strikes.
In an attempt to prolong the agony of Ukraine and push more Ukrainians into a slaughter, Kyiv’s NATO partners are sending limited amounts of their expensive military equipment into the war-torn country. One of the most precious gifts are few F-16 fighters that entered service with the Ukrainian Air Force just a couple of weeks ago. The aircraft are reportedly aimed to support the air defense, but obviously fail to fulfill the task.
Ukraine lost one of its first new fighter jets on one of its first missions. According to the western MSM, an F-16 crashed as a result of a pilot mistake. A Ukrainian deputy, however, claimed that it was shot down by a Patriot system. It could also have been destroyed by Russian strike on the host airfield which was revealed last week. No matter how the first F-16 was destroyed, it is a heavy blow to the Ukrainian military, the Kyiv regime and its NATO partners.
Wunderwaffen is down.
Awaited since May 2023, the F-16 fighter planes were the last in a series of ‘wonder weapons’ that were expected to turn the tide of the war in Ukraine – but did not.
While it’s shocking in itself that the much-awaited plane would be destroyed in its very first mission, when we investigate how it could have happened, it becomes even more disturbing.
The incident occurred during the August 26th mass air raid over Ukraine, where Geranium drones and a variety of missiles – including supersonic Khinzals – brought destruction to all regions of Ukraine.
The Russian Federation sources claim the plane was hit on the ground during refueling – probably preparing to scramble out of harm’s way.
Ukrainian sources, for their part, claim it crashed while on a flight trying to bring down attacking drones.
Some outlying claims have the fighter shot down in an ambush by a Russian Su-57.
Ukrainian pilot Oleskyi Mês.
What everyone seems to agree is that the F-18’s crash or otherwise means of destruction killed veteran Ukrainian pilot Oleskyi Mês.
But what seems the most disturbing is a version of the events floated by a Ukrainian deputy of the Vekhovna Rada Maryana Bezuhla:
“According to my information, the F-16 of the Ukrainian pilot (squadron commander) Alexey ‘Moonfish’ Mes was shot down by a Patriot air defense missile system due to a lack of coordination between units. The reports noted that he ‘lost control’.
The event occurred during one of the most powerful air attacks by the Russians on August 26.
War is war, such episodes are possible. But the culture of lies in the Ukrainian Air Force Command, as well as in other senior military headquarters, leads to the fact that the military decision-making system does not improve based on truthful, consistently collected analytics, but worsens and even collapses, as is happening in the Pokrovsky direction. And not a single general has been punished. General Oleshchuk remains in office,” said Maryana Bezuglaya.”
As for US sources, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh has confirmed the loss of the plane, but refused to comment on whether it was indeed a Patriot that brought the plane down.
Simplicius on Substack:
“It’s also quite possible—and in fact probably more plausible than the official story—that the F-16 did not gloriously go down swinging, after heroically shooting down several Russian drones and missiles, but that it was infact destroyed on the ground just as the Russian MOD had stated. You’ll recall during the large-scale strikes days ago, the Russian MOD said two F-16s were potentially destroyed in their hangars.”
“The F-16 was shot down by a Patriot air defense system during the massive missile attacks on August 26 due to a lack of coordination between Ukrainian Air Force units”
— Bezugla, People’s Deputy of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/9rY2n8q2wU
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) August 29, 2024