However earlier than Pilshchikov had the possibility to take the check, he and two different Ukrainian pilots — Viacheslav Minka and Serhiy Prokazin — had been killed final week when two L-39 coaching jets collided in northwestern Ukraine in what the Ukrainian Air Drive described as an accident throughout a fight mission.
Ukrainian troops try to take occupied territory again from Russia regardless of a debilitating deficit in air energy towards the invader’s extra superior air pressure and its arsenal of long-range missiles. The crash Friday eradicated three extremely expert pilots in a single incident, leaving a pall of grief over the nation, the place the nationwide temper had already darkened amid the challenges of the slow-going counteroffensive.
The pilots’ deaths additionally set off anger at the US for what some critics in Ukraine see as an pointless delay in sending the F-16s.
Pilshchikov was the pilot who tried to elucidate to the world that the previous Soviet-era jets “are like flying coffins,” stated Daria Kaleniuk, 36, govt director of Ukraine’s nongovernmental Anti-Corruption Motion Middle.
At Pilshchikov’s burial in Kyiv on Tuesday, Kaleniuk recalled that final week, he had despatched a textual content to a bunch chat celebrating the U.S.’s determination to coach some Ukrainian pilots in the US.
The crash quickly after confirmed “that daily of delay in decision-making someplace in America is inflicting extra deaths,” Kaleniuk stated. If the coaching “began a 12 months in the past,” she stated, “I guess Juice could be alive.”
Requested about these remarks, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, stated the Protection Division presents its “deepest condolences” to the households and family members of “the numerous Ukrainians who’ve misplaced their lives on account of Russia’s useless conflict of aggression.”
The USA, Ryder stated, has “rushed an unprecedented quantity of important battlefield capabilities” to the Ukrainian navy to allow them to defend their nation and recuperate territory from Russian forces. “We’ll proceed to take action,” he stated, “for so long as it takes in assist of the Ukrainian individuals of their struggle for freedom.”
Tetiana Shevchenko, a detailed pal of Pilshchikov, stated “he flew on a aircraft that’s in all probability older than him.”
Shevchenko, who additionally works on the Anti-Corruption Motion Middle, acknowledged that there are “no secure flights.” However “the delay with the planes,” she stated, “results in the truth that we lose the perfect.”
“Final 12 months, we requested to begin coaching earlier than the choice on the switch of the plane,” she added. “It’s only beginning now.”
The pilots killed final week belonged to the fortieth Brigade, which gained stardom in Ukraine final 12 months after a legend circulated {that a} pilot generally known as “The Ghost of Kyiv” had single-handedly eradicated dozens of Russian planes within the first weeks of the conflict. Ukraine’s Air Drive later stated the “Ghost” was a fictional model of the collective work of your complete brigade.
Pilshchikov, a fluent English speaker who had educated in California, was presupposed to have some relaxation after which take his English examination, stated Andrii Snizhko, an officer in his brigade. “Sadly,” he stated, “loss of life breaks all our plans.”
Inside a church on the east financial institution of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, Pilshchikov’s mom, wearing black, and his girlfriend, wearing a black and olive inexperienced conventional Ukrainian shirt, watched solemnly as mourners positioned flowers across the closed casket.
Some who attended the funeral didn’t know Pilshchikov personally however noticed him as an emblem of the Ghost of Kyiv’s heroism.
“We revered him and had been grateful to him,” stated Natalia Duniasheva. The 52-year-old dentist struggled to carry again tears as she credited the fortieth Brigade with stopping Russian forces from occupying the capital final 12 months.
Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation stated this week that it will examine the reason for the crash that killed the pilots, together with an intensive examination of the black containers, the situation of the plane and whether or not flight preparation guidelines had been adopted.
On Fb, the brigade stated that Minka had greater than 200 hours of fight flying and that Prokazin had greater than 100. Minka “devoted a big a part of his service to instruction,” the publish stated. Prokazin spent 24 years as a pilot and was remembered for his “means to return to assist in tough conditions.”
Air Drive spokesman Yuriy Ignat, who attended the funeral Tuesday, lauded Pilshchikov in a Fb publish as “a younger officer with mega information and mega expertise.”
Helicopter pilot Anton Mykhailyuk, 32, stated he met Pilshchikov quickly after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. Pilshchikov had been obsessive about aviation since his childhood, he stated, and was optimistic but in addition “very strict.”
“He was very younger, however he did quite a bit,” Mykhailyuk stated exterior the church in Kyiv. “Possibly greater than commanders.”
Mykhailyuk’s father, Oleksandr, 61, additionally a pilot, stated he had flown alongside Pilshchikov. The 2 males flying the L-39s with the younger pilot final week had been extremely skilled on these planes, he stated; they had been amongst those that “had probably the most flight hours within the brigade” from flying above different plane on fight missions. “It’s an unlimited loss,” Oleksandr Mykhailyuk stated.
Adam Makos, an American navy historian who co-founded the U.S.-based nonprofit “Wingmen for Ukraine,” helped set up Pilshchikov’s interviews with Western journalists after which his go to to Washington final 12 months with a fellow pilot who goes by the decision signal “Moonfish.”
Like many navy pilots, they typically obscured their faces in public to keep away from being recognized. However in Washington, Makos stated, “they took off their masks and regarded the senators within the eyes and informed them how determined Ukraine’s wants had been.”
“They informed them what they’d seen, what they’d gone via,” he stated. “Juice informed them that day: Lots of people doubt that we will grasp these Western plane. However I promise you it’ll not take us years like others say. We are able to do that in months.
“The sheer power of his conviction satisfied them it may very well be carried out,” he added.
President Biden initially insisted Ukraine didn’t want F-16s, however finally reversed course and accredited the switch of the U.S.-made fighter jets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky final week visited the Netherlands and Denmark. Each international locations’ leaders have promised to ship F-16s to Ukraine — a supply that Zelensky stated will “give new vitality, confidence, and motivation to fighters and civilians.” Norway additionally made a pledge.
Days later, Washington introduced it will enable Ukrainian pilots to coach in Tucson after plans to conduct the coaching in Europe confronted probably lengthy delays.
On Telegram, Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of workers, addressed Pilshchikov after his loss of life.
“You dreamed of flying an F-16, and … did quite a bit to make sure that Ukraine obtained these plane,” Yermak wrote. “The sky shall be ours, as you dreamed.”
Morgunov reported from Stuttgart, Germany. Dan Lamothe contributed to this report from Washington.
