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text | xiaoyin

on august 31, local time, ukrainian defense minister umerov said in an interview with the media that the dismissal of ukrainian air force commander oleschuk announced the day before had nothing to do with the crash of the ukrainian air force's american-made f-16 fighter jet.

is it really irrelevant or false?

on august 29, local time, the ukrainian ministry of defense confirmed that an f-16 fighter jet of the ukrainian air force crashed in the country. the ukrainian side disclosed that the f-16 crashed while intercepting an incoming russian missile, and a ukrainian pilot died.

in fact, various media have reported that the deceased was ukrainian ace pilot oleksiy metz. the problem is that the ukrainian air force f-16 fighter jet, which had just arrived a month ago, was destroyed in its first battle. in this case, who should bear the responsibility?

the ukrainian ministry of defense or the command center of the ukrainian air force?

in xiaoyin's opinion, the current situation is that russia and ukraine are in a state of conflict. any war damage between russia and ukraine should not be compared with normal aircraft crashes. but the cause of the crash of this f-16 does need to be investigated.

it was pilot error.

or was it hit by a russian missile?

or was there a mechanical failure?

……

both are possible.

the question is, why was the ukrainian air force commander fired the day after the f-16 crash? was the f-16 crash related to his command?

let's analyze it:

if it were an ordinary day and ukraine was preparing to dismiss the air force commander, what would it do?

in xiaoyin's opinion, there may be multiple ways of announcement.

for example, even if a plane crashes and the air force commander is dismissed, the central government may not immediately announce it. delaying the announcement is also a trick.

it is also possible that after announcing his dismissal, he would be reinstated two days later. this is a bit like the recent iranian vice president zarif, who announced his resignation on social media and then announced his reinstatement on social media ten days later. zarif's actions were quite confusing to the west.

and now? in the war, after the crash of the ukrainian air force f-16, the ukrainian air force commander oleksandr oleksandr was dismissed. no matter how the ukrainian officials explained that there was no connection between the two events, it was hard for outside observers to believe it.

so why did ukraine still make such an announcement? in xiaoyin's opinion, perhaps ukraine wanted to remove olshuk from his post. this is really a coincidence.

f-16 fighter jet photo: cctv news

after the f-16 crash, did the dismissal procedure not take place? if not, it would affect the entire ukrainian military command system and the front-line operations.

in other words, the announcement must be made and cannot be delayed.

we have to talk about the issue of f-16s entering ukraine.

at the beginning of the russian-ukrainian conflict, the main combat aircraft of the ukrainian air force was of course the mig-29. this fighter is a product of the soviet era. after the disintegration of the soviet union, it is still the main combat force of russia, ukraine and other countries. among the former warsaw pact countries, such as poland, the czech republic, slovakia, romania, hungary and other countries, they are still equipped with this fighter. even though these countries have joined the north atlantic treaty organization, these mig-29 aircraft are either still in service or sealed.

after the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict, ukraine's mig-29 aircraft were of course damaged in the war. how to replenish them in time? ukraine chose to seek help from former warsaw pact members in eastern europe. this is how the eastern european mig-29 aircraft came to support ukraine.

mig-29 fighter jet photo: xinhua news agency

this is good for everyone -

for ukraine, these aircraft are seamlessly integrated with domestic equipment, and pilots can directly understand the russian signs on the aircraft;

for these eastern european countries, they no longer need to pay high maintenance costs for these old aircraft, and the premise of their "donation" of mig-29s is that the united states will supplement these countries with f-16s or even f-35 fighters. this has enabled their air forces to become fully nato-based earlier than expected.

for the united states, it can ask its minions to support ukraine while selling its own military equipment.

each party thinks they have made a profit.

however, as the conflict between russia and ukraine drags on, ukraine needs to continue to replenish its air force equipment. therefore, nato countries have contributed their own f-16 fighters. including the united states, which is also providing f-16 fighters to ukraine.

the question is, are these f-16s new? or are they just getting used to? or are they older, older models that were meant to be retired and thrown into the "aircraft graveyard"?

for ukrainian pilots, the f-16 is certainly a good product, but the problem is that its english operating interface is not something that ukrainian pilots who are familiar with russian can immediately become familiar with.even ukrainian pilots who know english need to learn the nato-standard third-generation f-16.

before they have fully achieved the state of "man-machine integration", these elites of the ukrainian air force are about to fly fighter jets to the battlefield. isn't this tragic?

in xiaoyin's opinion, what is more worthy of admiration is——

there are indeed various signs that it has sent mercenaries to join the ukrainian army, or that mercenaries from other parts of the world have joined the ukrainian army for high wages or other purposes, but these are mostly the army. it is even more difficult to supplement the manpower of the high-tech military branches, navy and air force.

even for the united states, air force pilots are treasures!

photo of ukrainian pilot metz before his death

it is also important to note that for nato, the war between ukraine and russia is itself a war of attrition among the slavs. they are certainly happy to see the attrition of russia, and in fact, they are also happy to see the attrition of ukraine.

you have to know that ukraine was the place where the an-225, the largest aircraft in human history, was developed and manufactured. today, its own industrial capacity has suffered a significant loss. as the russian-ukrainian conflict continues, how ukraine will rebuild its own industrial capacity in the future will be a big problem.