Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the commander of the air drive Friday, a number of days after an F-16 fighter jet that Kyiv acquired from its Western allies crashed throughout a Russian strike, killing its pilot.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was printed on the presidential web site.
“We want to guard individuals. Protect personnel. Take care of all our troopers,” Zelenskyy mentioned in an handle minutes after the order was printed. He mentioned Ukraine must strengthen its military on the command degree.
Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko was appointed performing air drive commander, the military’s common workers mentioned.
The dismissal got here on the identical day that Oleshchuk directed scathing criticism at a lawmaker who’s deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s protection committee for her claims that the F-16 was downed by a Patriot air-defense system. Ukraine has acquired an unspecified variety of the U.S.-made programs.
Mariana Bezuhla cited unnamed sources for her declare and demanded punishment for these accountable for the error.
Oleshchuk accused Bezuhla of defaming the air drive and discrediting U.S. arms producers and mentioned that he hoped she would face authorized penalties for her claims.
“The fact will win,” Bezuhla posted on X shortly after the dismissal order was printed.
The air drive didn’t straight deny that the F-16 was hit by a Patriot missile.
U.S. consultants have joined the Ukrainian investigation into the crash, the air drive mentioned.
Meanwhile, a Russian assault on the northeastern metropolis of Kharkiv utilizing highly effective plane-launched glide bombs killed six individuals, together with a 14-year-old woman on a playground, and wounded 47 others, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov mentioned.
The bombs struck 5 places throughout town, which had a prewar inhabitants of round 1.4 million individuals, the governor mentioned.
One of the bombs hit a 12-story condo block, setting the constructing ablaze and trapping at the least one individual on an higher ground. Emergency crews trying to find survivors feared the constructing might collapse.
Zelenskyy pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as additional proof that Western companions ought to scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian army can goal with donated weapons.
The Kharkiv strike “wouldn’t have occurred if our protection forces had the potential to destroy Russian army aviation at its bases. We want robust choices from our companions to cease this terror,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
F-16s are one of many weapons that could possibly be used to hit Russian bases behind the entrance line.
Oleshchuk mentioned on Telegram that “a detailed analysis” was already being carried out into why the F-16 jet went down Monday, when Russia launched a serious missile and drone barrage at Ukraine.
“We should fastidiously perceive what occurred, what the circumstances are, and whose duty it’s,” Oleshchuk wrote within the put up shortly earlier than his dismissal.
The crash was the primary reported lack of an F-16 in Ukraine, the place the warplanes arrived on the finish of final month. At least six are believed to have been delivered by European international locations.
Military analysts say the planes is not going to be a game-changer within the struggle, given Russia’s huge air drive and complex air protection programs. But Ukrainian officers welcomed the supersonic jets, which might carry fashionable weapons utilized by NATO international locations, for providing a possibility to hit again at Russia’s air superiority.
On the bottom, the Russian military is making sluggish however gradual progress in its drive into japanese Ukraine, whereas Ukrainian forces are holding floor within the Kursk border area of western Russia after a current incursion.
The Institute for the Study of War mentioned it anticipated that Ukraine would lose some Western-provided army tools within the combating.
But the Washington-based suppose tank added that “any loss among Ukraine’s already limited allotment” of F-16s and educated pilots “will have an outsized impact” on the country’s ability to operate F-16s “as a part of its mixed air protection umbrella or in an air-to-ground assist position.”
In different developments, European Union protection ministers agreed in Brussels to spice up their coaching program for Ukrainian troops.
“Today the ministers agreed to elevating the goal to 75,000, including 15,000 extra by the top of the yr,” EU overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell informed reporters after the assembly.
“The training has to be shortened and adapted to the Ukrainian training needs,” Borrell said. He added that the EU would set up a small “coordination and liaison cell” within the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to make the coaching effort more practical.
So far, 60,000 troops have handed by way of the bloc’s coaching scheme, which is carried out exterior Ukraine.
___
Associated Press Writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s protection of the struggle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Source: www.dailysabah.com