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US official confirms first loss of F-16 in Ukraine — WSJ

Initial reports indicate that the jet wasn’t shot down, but likely crashed due to pilot error, the official said

© AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

NEW YORK, August 29. /TASS/. A US official confirmed that Ukraine lost the first of its F-16 fighter jets, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The crash happened on Monday, just weeks after the first of the US-made aircraft arrived in Ukraine, according to the report.

Initial reports indicate that the jet wasn’t shot down, but likely crashed due to pilot error, the official said. The incident occurred during a massive missile attack.

The Pentagon referred the newspaper to the Ukrainian Air Force for comment, but the Ukrainian Air Force wouldn’t confirm the crash or the status of the pilot.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on August 7 that F-16 fighters would not become a magic pill that could influence the course of hostilities and "will be consistently destroyed by the Russian armed forces."

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