While it had been hoped that the first Ukrainian pilots might be qualified to fly F-16 Viper fighters by early next year at the latest, that is now reportedly when they are expected to start training. The goal is now to have the first of Ukraine's aviators ready to take the stick of an F-16 sometime next summer.
The Washington Postfirst reported on the delay earlier today, citing two anonymous Ukrainian officials. Concerns over English language proficiency and a shortage of F-16 trainers in Europe are cited as the reasons for the schedule slip.
F-16 training is now likely won’t begin until January, according to the Post. As a result, the first group of six pilots is not expected to complete that training until the summer of 2024. As The War Zone previously reported, a plan had been in place to start training Ukrainian pilots on how to fly the F-16s this month in Denmark, and at a training center that will be set up in Romania.
Danish Air Force F-16s. Denmark is one of the country in line to help train Ukrainian pilots to fly the Viper. (Photo by BO AMSTRUP/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
The initial group of Ukrainian pilots are already fluent in English, but they mustfirst attend four months of English lessons in Britain to learn terminology associated with the jets, the sources told the Post. Adding to the complications, that instruction will occur along with ground staff who may be less proficient in English. The Ukrainians told the newspaper that the schedule is being comingled because Denmark requested to train entire crews together rather than just the pilots first. Denmark’s Defense Ministry reportedly declined to comment.
This all pushes back the start of combat training, which is expected to take six months, to January, the Ukrainian officials said, according to the report. . .
Reports say that Ukraine continues to push south in its counteroffensive, with the town of Roboytne being fiercely fought over. Russia is said to be continuing to threaten the Kharkiv Oblast town of Kupiansk, where a mandatory evacuation is underway. The bloody fight for the Bakhmut area continues, as well.
Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front and advanced in the area between the Donetsk-Zaporizhia regions on August 10.
Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, the border between the western Donetsk and eastern Zaporizhia regions, and in the western Zaporizhia region on August 10 and made some advances.
Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front and advanced in the border area between the western Donetsk and eastern Zaporizhia regions on August 10.
One of the four Kinzhal missiles heading to western Ukraine was shot down over Kyiv, authorities there said Friday. There were no injuries, but it caused some damage across the city, according to its mayor.
Debris from the missile reportedly landed near one of the capital's children's hospitals, and two more crash sites were found in the Obolon district, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on his Telegram channel Friday.
There was another attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow on Friday that temporarily closed one of its airports, Russian officials said. Unlike the Russian missile strikes on Ukraine, no one was said to have been killed or injured and the drones did not seem to cause any serious damage. This would be the third drone attack on the capital, according to Russian authorities in just a few weeks. This comes a day after a number of airports were shut down temporarily, reportedly over concerns about a drone in Moscow airspace.
“As a result of the air defense work, it was eliminated,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Friday on his Telegram channel of the reported drone attack today. “No one was hurt when debris fell in the area of Karamyshevskaya embankment. There are no serious damages. Emergency services are on site.”
Video and images of a drone flying over the city and a smoke plume from its apparent crash emerged on social media.
From what can be seen, this drone may have been a Ukrainian-developed type named Bober (meaning Beaver), which you can read more about here. This uncrewed aircraft, which has a distinctive configuration with canards on either side of its nose, was also apparently used in the July 24 raid on Moscow as well as in the earlier multi-drone attack on the Russian capital on May 30.
The explosion resulting from its crash was captured on video during a broadcast of the Russian Rowing Championships.
Moscow’s Vnukovo airport - as well as Kaluga airport about 95 miles southwest of the capital - were temporarily closed, according to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA) Telegram channel.
FATA said three flights were diverted to Domodedovo airport, just south of Moscow.
This was the second time in as many days that Vnukovo saw flight restrictions. Both that and Domodedovo airport were affected yesterday after what local media said was the enactment of the so-called “Carpet Plan” designed to address potential threats posed by unidentified aircraft or objects, like drones, in the sky.
Egypt is balking at sending weapons to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The U.S. government asked its Egyptian counterparts to supply artillery shells, antitank missiles, air-defense systems, and small arms for Ukraine, the paper reported, citing a U.S. official.
“In conversations with U.S. officials, Egypt hasn’t definitively rejected the requests, but Egyptian officials said privately that Egypt has no plans to send the weapons,” the Journal reported.
Egypt is resisting requests from senior U.S. leaders to send them to Ukraine, Egyptian and American officials told the Journal. That is posing an obstacle for the Biden administration’s push to generate arms for the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Cairo was initially going to send rockets to Russia but dropped that plan under pressure from the U.S. earlier this year, the officials told the Journal. This was first reported earlier this year. U.S. officials, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, asked Egypt to supply weapons to Ukraine instead, seeking to help the Ukrainian government overcome an ammunition shortage.
Austin made the initial request in March when the secretary of defense met Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, in Cairo. Egypt’s leaders were noncommittal at the time, and senior U.S. officials have raised the request in multiple encounters since then, the officials said.
The U.K. Defense Ministry on Friday released a video of the training it provided for 1,000 Ukrainian Marines on riverine operations, including commando raids and amphibious incursions. That's something that has become increasingly important as Ukraine continues to send small units across the Dnipro River into Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast.
Citing concerns with corruption at recruiting centers known as “military commissariats,” Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky announced he is dismissing all the existing leaders and replacing them with troops who have returned from the front.
There are already 112 criminal proceedings against officials of those commissariats, Zelensky said Friday on his Telegram channel, with another 33 suspected cases.
“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason,” Zelensky said. “Instead, soldiers who have passed the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have preserved their dignity and do not have cynicism, are the ones who can be trusted with this equipment system.”
According to the Kyiv Post, these commissariats were created for “preparation and mobilization; management of human and economic resources; training of young individuals for military service; organization of conscription and training sessions; and facilitation of voluntary enlistment for military service.”
Several mobile medical support complexes were transferred by the Netherlands to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service.
"Their use allows to build a system of medical and evacuation support of the State Border Guard Service according to the standards of medical services of NATO countries," the service announced on its webpage.
Ukraine's 26th Brigade compiled videos showing what it claims were four Russian tank kills by its First Person Video (FPV) drones. However, at least one of the tanks in the video is seen still moving, though smoke is pouring out the back.
The Russian tank in the video below appears to have fallen off a cliff in the course of the fighting. Seemingly immobilized, it was a sitting duck for this Ukrainian FPV drone.
While there is a lot of FPV drone footage that comes of the conflict in Ukraine, rarely is it as crisp as that seen in this Russian attack on a Ukrainian sheltered position near Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, posted by the Archangel of the Special Forces Telegram channel.
Many who see this FPV drone videos point out their resemblance to video games. That's exactly the point, says this Ukrainian FPV drone operator, who says his gaming experience has helped him in this new role.
Russia's BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) have been one of its mainstays in this fight. In the video below, two are seen damaged or destroyed by a Ukrainian attack.
The addition of a “cope cage” equipped with an added layer of what appear to be Kontakt-1 explosive reactive armor (ERA) bricks on top did not seem to help this Russian T-80BV tank. What appears to be a direct hit on the turret looks to have destroyed the tank near Yahidine, Donetsk Oblast as you can see in this video below. This is not the first time this type of defensive modification has been seen, as you can read more about in this past War Zone story.
The crew of the Russian tank in this video below inexplicably seems to steer right toward mines that appear to be visible on the road. After hitting the mines, there is an explosion, a plume of gray smoke, and at the end of the video, you can see at least some of the crew members escape.
Even as it enduring an all-out war, Ukraine is one of the world's largest producers of sunflower seeds, used to make cooking oil. The crew of this Ukrainian Buk air defense system almost seems to be harvesting them as it drives through a field of the flowers.
And finally, Queen's "We Will Rock You" sounds great in any language. In the case of these soldiers, it is Ukrainian.
That's it for now. We'll provide additional information when there's more news to report about Ukraine.
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