Andrey ‘Juice’ Pilshchikov, who campaigned for the supply of F-16s to Kiev, was among the many three pilots who died on Friday
Ukraine has misplaced a “mega expertise,” the nation’s air power spokesperson has mentioned, commenting on the dying of fighter pilot Andrey ‘Juice’ Pilshchikov. One of many faces of Kiev’s marketing campaign for the supply of F-16 fighter jets, he was killed together with two of his colleagues throughout a coaching flight on Friday.
In a Fb submit on Saturday, Ukrainian Air Pressure consultant Yury Ignat described Pilshchikov as a “younger officer with mega data and mega expertise,” who contributed quite a bit to reforming the nation’s navy aviation.
The spokesperson added that the late pilot met with US authorities officers final yr, lobbying for the availability of F-16s. In keeping with Ignat, Pilshchikov, who spoke English properly, additionally talked quite a bit about Kiev’s wants throughout his quite a few interviews with Western media.
The official recounted how a lot Juice had yearned to fly the F-16, including that his dying has particular poignancy now that the “American planes are literally on the horizon.”
In his video deal with on Telegram on Saturday, President Vladimir Zelensky prolonged his condolences to the fighter pilot’s household, calling Pilshchikov “a kind of who helped our nation quite a bit.”
He added that an investigation into the lethal incident had been launched.
In its assertion, the Ukrainian Air Pressure mentioned that Pilshchikov and two different pilots had been killed when two L-39 fight coaching plane collided over Zhytomyr area west of Kiev on Friday.
A number of media shops, citing eyewitnesses and specialists, urged that the 2 crews could have been practising formation flying, and that the planes had come too shut to one another.
Ukraine had been asking its Western backers to produce it with US-made F-16 fighter jets for months earlier than Denmark and the Netherlands confirmed their readiness at hand over numerous warplanes final week.
On Monday, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed receipt of the requests for F-16 transfers. She added, nevertheless, that Ukrainian pilots would first want to enhance their English, noting that that is liable to “take a while.”
Ukrainian Protection Minister Aleksey Reznikov, in flip, instructed the media on Tuesday that the fighter jets is not going to be arriving in Ukraine for a minimum of one other six months.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that provides of extra refined weapons to Ukraine by the US and its allies might lead to a serious escalation of hostilities.
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