Ukrainian authorities have begun an investigation after a mid-air collision between two warplanes in the west of the country killed three pilots.
Air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian television on Sunday it was not immediately clear how long the inquiry would take.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office announced a criminal investigation had been opened into whether flight-preparation rules were violated.
The air force announced the crash on its Telegram app. “We express our condolences to the families of the victims. This is a painful and irreparable loss for all of us,” it said.
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According to the air force’s Telegram page, two L-39 training military aircraft collided during a combat mission over Ukraine’s western Zhytomyr region on Friday.
Three pilots were killed, including Andriy Pilshchykov, a well-known pilot with the nickname “Juice” who was an outspoken advocate for Ukraine getting F-16 fighter jets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in his nightly address on Saturday paid tribute to Mr Pilshchykov, describing him as a “Ukrainian officer, one of those who helped our country a lot”.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Vasilkiv tactical aviation brigade identified the other two pilots killed in the collision as Viacheslav Minka and Serhiy Prokazin.
Mr Ihnat described Mr Pilshchykov – who was fluent in English – as a “mega talent” and leader of reforms. “You can’t even imagine how much he wanted to fly an F-16,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “But now that American planes are actually on the horizon, he will not fly them.”
Elsewhere, Russian forces targeted central and northern regions of Ukraine with cruise missiles overnight.
Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday that air defences had successfully intercepted four of them.
In the Kyiv region surrounding the Ukrainian capital, the falling debris damaged a dozen private homes and wounded two people, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that it targeted – and successfully hit – an airfield in the Kyiv region. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.
In Russia, the defence ministry reported bringing down two drones over the Bryansk and Kursk regions that border Ukraine.
Kursk governor Roman Starovoit, however, reported that a drone slammed into a multistorey residential building in the region’s capital.
It was not immediately clear if it crashed after being shot down by air defences, as reported by the defence ministry, or was targeting the building. – Agencies