Ukrainian Defense Minister: Air Force commander's dismissal not related to F-16 crash
Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov (photo: Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
The dismissal of Ukraine's Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk is not related to the F-16 fighter jet crash. Rather, it was a rotation, states the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov in his interview with CNN.
“I would probably say this is a rotation (Oleshchuk's dismissal - ed.). These are two separate issues... at this stage, I would not connect them,” Umerov said.
Umerov called the death of the pilot “unfortunate” and said that Ukraine is investigating what happened.
“We're analyzing what has happened... We've also opened this file to our partners so they are also analyzing this and investigating along with us,” Umerov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine yesterday.
Zelenskyy did not say whether his decision to fire Oleshchuk was related to Monday's F-16 crash, but said that the command level of the Air Force needed to be “strengthened.”
F-16 fighter jet crash
On August 29, the media began reporting that one of the F-16 fighter jets had crashed in Ukraine. The Air Force, in turn, reported the death of pilot Oleksii Mes, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces later confirmed the loss of the F-16.
Yesterday, on August 30, Oleshchuk made a statement about the F-16 crash.
