Tragic Collision Claims Lives of Ukrainian Air Force Pilots, Including Beloved Fighter Pilot ‘Juice’

2023-08-27 16:00:21

According to information from Kiev, three pilots of the Ukrainian Air Force were killed in a collision between fighter jets in north-western Ukraine, including the well-known fighter pilot “Juice”. The fatalities are Vyacheslav Minka, Serhiy Prokasin and Andriy Pilschchykov alias “Juice”, said the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade.

In the accident, two L-39 training aircraft collided in the Zhytomyr region on Friday, the Ukrainian Air Force announced a day later.

Pilot was “brave, principled and uncompromising”.

Pilschchykov, known by the aviator name “Juice”, was “courageous, principled and uncompromising”, his brigade explained. The three victims had been “involved in air operations in defense of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s aggression,” including “tactical tasks in the east and in the Zaporizhia region.”

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force described Pilshchykov as a pilot with “mega-knowledge and mega-talent”. “Rest in peace, you have done so much for us,” said the spokesman in online networks. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute to the dead in a speech on Saturday as a defender of the “free skies of Ukraine”.

This is where you will find third-party content

In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information regarding this. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.

All developments in the live ticker:

18:00 – At least three dead following Russian attacks in Ukraine

According to the authorities, at least three people were killed in Russian artillery attacks in Ukraine on Sunday. A 35-year-old woman was killed and a man injured near the southern Ukrainian city of Cherson, the regional military administration said. A little later, the public prosecutor’s office reported another dead person and another injured person – this time in Cherson itself. The investigators assumed a Russian artillery attack.

In a village near the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kharkiv, a woman died following her house was hit by Russian artillery, according to the regional military administration.

The current situation in Ukraine

Source: Infographic WORLD

16:49 – Ukrainian Army: “We are advancing south from Robotyne”

According to a spokesman, the Ukrainian army is working its way south following breaking through the Russian defense line at Robotyne. The next targets are the villages of Novoprokopivka, Mala Tokmachka and Ocheretuvate. Officer Oleksander Shtupun, spokesman for the troops in this sector of the front, said this on Ukrainian television on Sunday.

Although the Russian air force was stepping up its attacks there, Schtupun interpreted this as a sign that the exhausted Russian artillery and infantry no longer had much to oppose the Ukrainian advance.

1:32 p.m. – Russian paramilitaries threaten to disobey orders

A force of right-wing Russian paramilitaries is said to be threatening to disobey orders in the Ukraine war because one of their leaders is imprisoned in Finland. The Russian government should force the 36-year-old to leave the country, the Rusitsch militia is demanding. The US Institute for War Studies ISW reported on this on Sunday. “If a country doesn’t protect its citizens, why should citizens protect the country?” it said on Telegram.

The detained Russian is suspected of committing atrocities once morest Ukrainian soldiers during fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. Ukraine is therefore demanding his extradition. The district court of Vantaa near Helsinki extended the man’s detention on Friday, according to Finnish radio Yle. The well-known right-wing extremist had already been arrested in July for violating residence regulations. According to Russian paramilitaries in the Finnish prison, he is said to have already been questioned by officials from the Ukrainian secret service SBU.

13:04 – Russian investigators: DNA test confirms death of Prigozhin

Four days following a private plane crashed in Russia, the death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was confirmed by DNA tests, according to Russian investigators. The Russian investigative committee said on Sunday that all ten people who died in the crash were identified during the genetic tests. These are the people named on the passenger list of the flight.

A portrait of Prigozhin in Moscow. The mercenary leader died in the plane crash

Source: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/dpa

According to the authorities, Prigozhin was on the list, as well as his deputy Dmitry Utkin. The investigative committee did not initially provide any further information. The investigators also did not comment on the traces examined.

12:03 pm – Ukraine investigates deadly collision of fighter jets

In Ukraine, a collision between two fighter planes with three dead is under investigation. Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian television on Sunday that the duration of the investigation was unclear. According to the Air Force on Telegram, two L-39 military aircraft collided during a combat mission over the western Ukrainian region of Zhytomyr on Friday. Three pilots are said to have been killed, including the well-known Andriy Pilshchykov, who campaigned for the country to receive F-16 fighter jets.

10:40 am – Russian authorities report drone crash on residential building

According to local authorities, a drone crashed on a residential building in the Russian city of Kursk near the border with Ukraine. No one was injured in the incident on Saturday night, regional governor Roman Starowoit said in the online service Telegram. Windows were broken on several floors, and a nearby university building was also damaged.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said two Ukrainian drones had been shot down in the Kursk region and in the Bryansk region, which also borders Ukraine.

08:42 – Russian cruise missile attack

Several regions in Ukraine reportedly came under fire from Russian cruise missiles early Sunday morning. Among other things, air defenses were activated in the outskirts of Kiev, as the military administration of the Ukrainian capital announced on Telegram.

The current situation in Ukraine

Source: Infographic WORLD

The Ukrainian Air Force said the cruise missiles were launched by Russian fighter jets near the town of Engels on the Volga. A total of eight missiles were observed. Four of them were shot down over northern and central Ukraine. Despite this, no impacts or damage were reported. Some of the guided missiles might have been dummies, it said.

08:27 – Two drones shot down over border area with Ukraine

According to the Defense Ministry, Russian armed forces have repelled drone attacks on areas bordering Ukraine. One drone each was shot down over the Bryansk and Kursk regions, the ministry announced on the Telegram news service. It was not initially announced whether there were casualties or damage.

04:38 – Attacks on Kiev and Cherkasy

Several regions in Ukraine have reportedly come under rocket fire. Among other things, air defenses were activated in the outskirts of Kiev, as the military administration of the Ukrainian capital announced on Telegram. The governor of Cherkasy, Ihor Taburez, also wrote in his Telegram channel that the central Ukrainian region had activated air defenses. Nothing was initially known regarding damage or victims. The information might not be independently verified.

20:55 – Ukraine prepares further mobilization

According to the Ukrainian leadership, they are preparing further conscriptions for the defensive fight once morest Russia. “Yes, the military have contacted us and there will probably be an additional convocation,” Secretary of the National Council for Security and Defense Oleksiy Danilov told Ukrainian radio on Saturday. However, he assured that the mobilization would not go beyond the parameters already set at the beginning of the war on February 24, 2022.

Ukrainian soldiers during an exercise (picture from June 2023)

Quelle: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/Madeleine Kelly

According to Danilov, this is not an unscheduled measure. The mobilization has been going on for a year and a half, and several stages have already been completed. “You don’t have to make a fuss regarding it, everything is going according to the plan that we are currently pursuing,” said the top Kiev official.

8:15 p.m. – Ukraine reports two dead in Russian shelling of cafe

According to the local government, two civilians were killed and another injured in a Russian attack on a café in north-eastern Ukraine. Governor Oleh Synyehubov told Telegram that the attack on the facility in Podoly, a suburb of the city of Kupyansk, happened on Saturday morning. Rescue workers are on site.

British military intelligence believes it is possible that Russia might try to retake the Kupyansk area following Ukrainian troops recaptured it in a counter-offensive last September. Before that, the area was under Russian occupation for more than six months.

5:02 p.m. – Russia reports shooting down a drone near Belgorod

The Russian Defense Ministry has reported the shooting down of another drone near the city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border. The drone was approaching the city, the ministry said, but did not comment on possible casualties or damage. Belgorod is regarding 45 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Meanwhile, the governor of the region of the same name, Vyacheslav Gladkov, accused the Ukrainian military of shelling a border village with cluster munitions, injuring six civilians. Gladkow provided no evidence of the use of these controversial weapons, which scatter shrapnel over a large area. Ukraine received cluster bombs from the US for the first time last month, but has pledged to use them only to disperse enemy soldiers.

This is where you will find third-party content

In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information regarding this. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.
1693154298
#UkraineNews #Ukrainian #elite #pilot #Juice #killed #collision

Leave a Replay