Janice R. Andrews
In a big change during the current war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk on Friday as head of the country’s air force. This choice comes just four days after the pilot of an F-16 warplane that Ukraine had just bought from its Western partners crashed during a Russian air attack and died. The order to fire Oleshchuk was quickly posted on the presidential website, which shows how badly leadership needs to change after what happened.
In a statement released after the firing, President Zelenskyy stressed the importance of protecting military people and keeping the command system honest. “People need to be safe.” Keep people safe. “Take care of all our soldiers,” Zelenskyy said, emphasizing how important it is to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses at all levels, especially since the war with Russia is still going on.
There have been changes in charge of Ukraine’s air force.
A short time after being fired, Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko was named acting leader of Ukraine’s air force, according to the country’s general staff. This quick change in command shows how quickly the military in Ukraine wants to deal with the problems caused by the recent F-16 crash and the ongoing war.
At the same time that Oleshchuk was fired, he had a heated conversation with Mariana Bezuhla, a well-known Ukrainian politician who is the deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s defense committee. Bezuhla said in public that an unnamed source told him that the downed F-16 was hit by mistake by a Patriot air defense system provided by the United States. Responding strongly to this claim, Oleshchuk said that Bezuhla was slandering Ukraine’s air force and hurting the image of U.S. arms makers. There was no clear denial from the air force of Bezuhla’s claims, so there is room for guesswork and more research.
Investigations and Outside Involvement
Because the crash caused a lot of debate, U.S. experts have joined the Ukrainian probe to find out what happened. The fact that foreign experts were involved in the crash makes it even more important, since it was the first loss of an F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine since they were delivered from European partners at the end of last month. At least six F-16s are thought to have been sent to Ukraine, which is a very important addition to the country’s military to help it defend itself against Russian invasion.
Oleshchuk had said on Telegram that a “detailed analysis” was being done to find out what happened when the F-16 was shot down during a large Russian missile and drone attack. In his speech, he stressed how important it was to know what happened before the crash and who is responsible. “We need to carefully understand what happened, why it happened, and who is responsible,” he wrote not long before he was fired.
Increasing conflict and civilian deaths
At the same time, the war between Russia and Ukraine keeps getting worse, which is terrible for people. A recent Russian attack on Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, killed six people, including a girl aged 14. The attack also hurt 47 others. Powerful glide bombs dropped from planes were used in the attack, which hit five places in the city, including a 12-story apartment building that caught fire. Emergency workers are still looking for survivors, and there are worries that the building could fall down.
In a statement about the attacks in Kharkiv, President Zelenskyy asked Ukraine’s Western allies to be more bold and asked them to remove limits on how given weapons could be used. He said that being able to hit Russian military air bases would make these kinds of attacks on Ukrainian towns much less common. Zelenskyy asked for more help to fight Russia’s greater air power, saying, “The Kharkiv strike wouldn’t have happened if our defense forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aviation at its bases.”
Attacks across borders and ongoing military conflicts
As a response, Ukrainian rockets hit the Russian city of Belgorod and the areas around it late on Friday. Five people were killed and 37 were hurt, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the region. The area around Belgorod, which is next to northern Ukraine, has been hit by drone and artillery strikes a lot as a result of the current military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine is still very fierce. Russian forces are slowly making progress, but Ukrainian troops are still holding their ground in key areas. The Institute for the Study of War says that the ongoing fights have caused the loss of military weapons sent from the West, such as F-16s. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank said that any loss of Ukraine’s already small number of F-16s and trained pilots would have a big effect on the country’s ability to defend itself.
More help for Ukrainian troops from the European Union
In other news, the defense ministers of the European Union agreed to train more Ukrainian troops when they met in Brussels. Josep Borrell, who is in charge of foreign affairs for the EU, said that the goal would be raised to 75,000 soldiers, with an extra 15,000 being added by the end of the year. This move shows that the EU is ready to help Ukraine’s military and change the training to fit the needs of Ukrainian troops as they change.
The new training program is meant to make Ukraine’s military reaction to Russian attacks stronger, with a focus on adapting quickly and working together with Ukrainian needs. The EU wants to set up a small “coordination and liaison cell” in Kyiv to make training more efficient and make sure it fits in with what’s happening in the real world.
As Ukraine continues to deal with the difficulties of war and reorganizing its own military, the backing of the rest of the world is still very important for determining the result of this long-lasting conflict. The recent events show that Ukraine’s military is still having a hard time and how important it is to keep defense plans strong and flexible as threats grow.
