KYIV: Ukraine has lost an F-16 fighter jet, and its pilot was killed while repelling a Russian missile and drone strike, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.
It was the third such loss of an F-16 of the war, the military said.
“The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.
It said the pilot did everything he could, steering the aircraft away from populated areas—but tragically, he didn’t have time to eject.
Ukraine’s military reported that Russia launched 477 drones and 60 missiles of various types overnight. Ukrainian forces successfully destroyed 211 drones and 38 missiles in defense of their territory.
“On June 7, 2025, as a result of a successful Air Force operation in the Kursk direction, a Russian Su-35 fighter jet was shot down,” the military said on the Telegram messenger.
In Russia, the Ministry of Defence reported that its forces intercepted and destroyed three Ukrainian drones in the Kursk and Rostov border regions as well as over the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
This escalation comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Friday plans to reduce military spending next year, while also expressing openness to launching a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine.
Over the past several months, both Moscow and Kyiv have dispatched delegations to Istanbul, Turkey, for peace talks—notably in May—but these efforts have yet to make significant progress in ending the conflict that has raged for more than three years.
