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Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation after a mid-air collision between two fighter jets in the west of the country killed three pilots.
A man sells balloons next to piles of sandbags blocking the windows of an old building in kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
The Associated Press
Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation after a mid-air collision between two fighter jets in the west of the country killed three pilots.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian television on Sunday that it was not immediately clear how long the investigation would last.
According to the air force’s Telegram page, two L-39 military trainer jets collided on Friday during a combat mission over the western Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. Three pilots were killed, including Andriy Pilshchykov, a well-known pilot with the nickname “Juice” who was an outspoken advocate for Ukraine to get F-16 fighter jets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his Saturday night speech, paid tribute to Pilshchykov, describing him as a “Ukrainian officer, one of those who helped our country a lot.”
Ukraine’s Vasilkiv Tactical Aviation Brigade identified the other two pilots killed in the collision as Viacheslav Minka and Serhiy Prokazin on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Russian forces attacked the central and northern regions of Ukraine with cruise missiles overnight. The Ukrainian air force reported on Sunday that air defenses successfully intercepted four of them. In the Kiev region surrounding the Ukrainian capital, falling debris damaged a dozen private homes and injured two people, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry reported shooting down two drones over the Bryansk and Kursk regions bordering Ukraine. The drones, the ministry said, were launched by “the kyiv regime” in “another attempted terrorist attack” on Russian soil.
However, Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit reported that a drone crashed into a multi-storey residential building in the capital of the region of the same name. It was not immediately clear if it crashed after being shot down by air defences, as the Defense Ministry reported, or if it was targeting the building. Starovoit said no one was hurt, but several windows were broken.
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