the much vaed F-16 has failed its first test in the Ukrainian theater of conflict Cave's military said an F-16 fighter jet used by Ukraine crashed on Monday it is a first such loss reported since the long awaited arrival of the US made planes in the country that was confirmed this month in a statement on Facebook the Ukrainian general staff said that the jet came down and its pallet died while it was approaching a Target during a Russian air strike it added that the f-16s had demonstrated high efficiency and down four Russian cruise missiles the statement further said connection with one of the aircraft was lost while it was approaching the next Target as it turned out later the plane crashed the pilot died the crash is now being investigated and international experts will be invited to take part in the probe Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said that the Department of Defense has no knowledge of Ukraine seeking assistance after the crash Singh did not Reve feel how many American f-16s are currently in Ukraine but she expressed pride in the US training of some of the Ukrainian pilots flying the Jets noting that they are defending their skies and their country seen the reports I'm not aware of any assistance or requests for assistance from the Ukrainian side to us about um this particular incident um but I'd refer you to the ukrainians more to speak to to speak to any specifics on this pilot on Tuesday Ukraine and president zinsky said Russian missiles were shot down by Western supplied F-16 fighter jets before they reached their targets but the new revelation has put a question mark on zenki's claims zeny has been asking for over 100 f-16s to counter the Russian air power the deployment of the f-16s marks a crucial enhancement in Ukraine's air defense capabilities since Ukraine took delivery of its first batch of F-16 fighter jet it was clear that these aircraft will play a crucial role in the nation's air defense strategy but the reports of the crash shows how vulnerable the Frontline jet is to enemy fire analysts have raised doubts that Ukrainian Pilots have not been trained well enough to fly these machines now Ukraine has argued that the $64 million fighter jets missiles and targeting system will enable them to identify enemy ground Radars and Destroy them the F-16 jets are one of the top jet fighters in the world they are fast and extreme agile the powerful engine can generate excellent thrust to weight ratio due to the overall lightness of it propelling the F-16 to twice the speed of the sound at high altitude now meanwhile in eastern Ukraine at least one person has died and six injured during Russian shelling of the region the town is miles away from the Frontline and it is one of the most affected cities in the region according to Don Governor it comes under enemy fire almost every day now for more on this we were earlier joined by Le col Daniel Davis he is a military expert and a host of Daniel Davis Deep dive on YouTube take a listen to what he said you had Lindsey Graham in Kiev uh a week or so ago openly campaigning to have Western NATO pilots who were F-16 trained to volunt here uh to fly these airframes quote until we get the Ukrainian Pilots trained up so he was admitting even then that they were not yet adequately trained in the numbers even for the handful of airframes that they've had and by the way there are also some credible reports that at least two of the f-16s have been destroyed on the ground so it's not clear at all how many are even still airworthy [Music]