Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a press conferencein Kyiv on Friday (August 30, 2024)
| Photo Credit: ANI

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday (August 30, 2024) dismissed the country’s air force chief, a day after Kyiv said a US-made F-16 fighter jet had crashed in combat, killing the pilot.

In a video message, Mr. Zelensky said he had “decided to replace the commander of the air force” to strengthen Ukraine’s military leadership.

His office earlier published a presidential decree to officially remove Mykola Oleshchuk from the post.

The crash of the F-16 was a high-profile setback for Kyiv, which had lobbied the West to send the advanced fighter jet for months.

It was the first reported loss, just weeks after Ukraine first started taking delivery of the supersonic aircraft.

The military had said the plane and pilot crashed during a combat mission earlier this week after having shot down incoming Russian missiles.

Lawmaker Mariana Bezugla, who sits on a parliamentary defence, security and intelligence committee, claimed the F-16 was shot down by Ukraine’s own air defence systems in a case of friendly fire.

In response to those allegations Mr. Oleshchuk earlier on Friday (August 30, 2024) accused her of trying to discredit Ukraine’s military leaders, and said a full investigation into the incident was underway.

Mr. Zelensky did not provide further details on why he had decided to replace his air force commander, saying only that his command team “needed to get stronger”.

“Lieutenant General Anatolii Kryvonozhko, who leads the air force’s operations in the central part of Ukraine, would temporarily assume the role of overall commander,” the air force said.

It is not the first time Mr. Zelensky has removed a senior military leader.

Earlier this year he removed popular commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny.

He was replaced with Oleksandr Syrsky, who masterminded leading Ukraine’s shock counter-attack into Russia’s western Kursk region.

Kyiv:

The UK’s new defence minister pledged on Sunday to deliver more artillery guns, ammunition and missiles to Ukraine, stressing London’s ongoing support for Kyiv during a visit to the southern city of Odesa.

John Healey, appointed defence minister Friday by new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was visiting the port city, a frequent target of Russian missile and drone strikes, on his first international trip.

“There may have been a change in government, but the UK is united for Ukraine,” Healey said, according to a statement published by Britain’s defence ministry.

Healey pledged a new package of assistance including artillery guns, 250,000 rounds of ammunition, de-mining vehicles, small military boats, missiles and other equipment, the defence ministry said.

In Odesa, he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.

“Our commitment to stand with the Ukrainian people is absolute.”

Traveling to Odesa, Defence Secretary @JohnHealey_MP met with President @ZelenskyyUa to confirm Britain’s steadfast commitment to Ukraine will be reinvigorated by the new UK Government.

https://t.co/8WrIagKcy3pic.twitter.com/XjxMQJqOoh

— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) July 7, 2024

I met with the newly appointed Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom. We discussed the implementation of the security agreement and the preparation of a future 100-year cooperation agreement between Ukraine and the UK.

Our defense cooperation enables Ukrainian… pic.twitter.com/IPo3Eqbdio

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 7, 2024

London has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest backers since Russia invaded in February 2022. 

Zelensky posted footage showing Healey laying flowers at a memorial to mark Ukraine’s Navy Day.

He said he had briefed Healey and Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans — who also took up the post last week — on the situation on the battlefield.

In the capital Kyiv over the weekend, the Netherlands’ Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp pledged to begin sending F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine “without delay”.

Britain’s Healey also said a major UK aid package announced in April would be delivered “in full to Ukraine within the next 100 days”.

Kyiv has regularly complained about the late arrival of Western military supplies, which are vital to its outmanned and outgunned forces fighting off the Russian invasion. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will pay his second wartime visit to Washington next week, the White House announced Friday, in a bid to solidify the support of his country’s crucial backer which has shipped billions of dollars in aid to fight Russian invaders.

Zelensky will travel to the White House on Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden and also hold meetings at the U.S. Congress, where elements of the rival Republican Party are hesitant as Mr. Biden seeks to push through a major new package for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader’s trip to Washington will come after meetings with other world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security advisor, said that the trip came at a “critical time” as Ukraine wages a counteroffensive against Russia.

Mr. Biden will reaffirm “his commitment to continuing to lead the world in supporting Ukraine as it defends its independence, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters.

He contrasted Mr. Zelensky’s trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent summit with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated and sanctioned countries, from which Moscow is seeking weapons.

But doubts have also grown over the future of U.S. assistance as Congress approaches a September 30 deadline to approve funding just as the election season approaches.

Former president Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Mr. Biden next year, has lashed out at U.S. assistance, saying the money would be better spent at home and predicting an eventual triumph for Putin, for whom he has shown admiration.

Building ‘momentum’ for aid

But traditional Republicans including Senator Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, support assistance to Ukraine.

“We have confidence that there will be bipartisan support for this. I think President Zelensky does as well, and he wants to build momentum towards that as we head to the end of the month,” Mr. Sullivan said.

“Frankly, Republicans and Democrats both recognize that the United States cannot — in its own naked self-interest, let alone the moral obligations we have — walk away from Ukraine at this critical moment,” Mr. Sullivan said.

Ukraine launched a counter-offensive against entrenched Russian positions in June but progress has been limited, spurring the political debate in the West over support for Kyiv.

The United States has provided $43 billion in security assistance as Ukraine holds off Russian incursions.

Mr. Biden last month asked Congress for another $40 billion for Ukraine, both in emergency defense aid and economic and humanitarian assistance.

It will be Mr. Zelensky’s second visit to Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In December, he secretly flew to the U.S. capital on his first international trip during the war, entering the White House in the military fatigues that have become his trademark.

Mr. Zelensky has felt increasingly confident in traveling overseas, from European allies to Saudi Arabia to Japan, where he met leaders at the Group of Seven summit in May.

Mr. Biden paid his own surprise visit to Kyiv in February, a highly unusual trip to a zone of active combat for the security-conscious White House.

Mr. Biden, who has sought to rebut criticism he is too old for the job, has started to air the campaign advertisements of his Kyiv visit, with the 80-year-old president strutting confidently in his sunglasses alongside Mr. Zelensky.