After a long campaign and “hundreds of meetings”, the first batch of F-16s arrived in Ukraine in the summer of 2024. The American-made multirole fighter jet has a long and proven service history with dozens of operators.

Ukraine used its new F-16s in combat for the first time last week to shoot down Russian missiles during a massive attack. A jet was lost in the fight.

"[The commission] needs to determine the causes, and after that, work on a version acceptable to the public. Right now, it's slightly stalling in the second phase," Romanenko said. Read also: Pentagon comments on F-16 crash and friendly fire claims He explained the situation using the example of the Soviet Union: "There were always three versions