one of the very few f-16s Ukraine obtained last month has crashed to illustrate the symbolic setback authorities focus on the man who flew the fighter jet and died in the operation top Ukrainian pilot Alexi mes hailed as a national hero Ukraine needs fighter jets to destroy Russian missiles and drones like the ones seen in these latest images released by the Russian military the F-16 crashed on Monday on that day bombardments were said to be particularly intense in terms of the incident and and the pilot that's really something for Ukraine to speak to um we have been uh as you know training Pilots here in the United States um I will say that broadly speaking combat Aviation is incredibly complex Ukraine has pushed for this cooperation since the beginning of the fullscale Russian invasion hoping to block Russian attacks and reverse the course of the war