Russia shoots down Ukraine's F-16 jet, pilot during its biggest aerial attack
A Ukrainian F-16 supersonic fighter jet supplied and its pilot were shot down on Sunday amid Russia's biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, reports said.
It was the third such loss of an F-16 of the war, the military told news agency Reuters.
The pilot was shooting air targets when he was shot down with his West-supplied aircraft.
'The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,' the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.
NATO, according to local reports, has scrambled its warplanes after Russia used 500 missiles to down the F-16.
Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
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