Ukraine has confirmed the loss of its second US-made F-16 fighter jet on 12 April 2025. Capt. Ivanov was killed as Kyiv struggles to keep fighters airborne.
On 12 April 2025, Ukraine verified the loss of its second F-16 fighter plane. A Russian long-range air defence system, generally thought to be the S-400, apparently shot down the plane in the Sumy area. Later, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Capt. Pavlo Ivanov, 26, had perished on the operation.
The most recent event draws attention to Ukraine's increasing difficulty running Western fighter planes in airspace much packed with sophisticated Russian surface-to-air missile systems. Ukrainian sources said that near-constant radar surveillance and multi-layered interception zones have made it increasingly challenging to maintain F-16s in disputed airspace for extended durations and at effective levels.
Ukraine had earlier lost another F-16 on 26 August 2024 during a defensive sortie. That aircraft was flown by Lt. Col. Oleksii "Moonfish" Mes, who intercepted three Russian cruise missiles before crashing on the return leg of his mission. The cause was never officially determined, though both pilot error and technical failure were considered.
Kyiv insists that at least 130 F-16 planes are needed to offset Russian air dominance. The back-to-back defeats, however, have sparked questions about operational doctrine, training sufficiency, and fourth-generation fighter survivability in high-threat settings.
Author: Özgür Ekşi
