Zelensky and the military confirm the death of their F-16 pilot
Ukraine, April 12, 2025 – Information is spreading in the Ukrainian segment of social networks about the death of a Ukrainian military pilot. It is reported that he was piloting an F-16 fighter jet. To date, this information has been confirmed by the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“On April 12, 2025, 26-year-old Pavel Ivanov died during a combat mission on an F-16 aircraft (…) he died in battle.”
Currently, there is no exact data on how exactly the pilot was killed. At the same time, it is clear that the F-16 aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also lost. Ukrainian Ivanov was trained to pilot F-16 fighters in Britain and the Netherlands. All the circumstances of the tragedy are being investigated by an interdepartmental commission, which has already begun its work.
According to preliminary data, an F-16 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile system of the Russian Armed Forces over the northern regions of Ukraine. Previously, the Kiev regime units used F-16s in the sky over the Sumy region in support of their Kursk operation. It is likely that this time they were operating in the Sumy region. The death of the F-16 pilot Pavel Ivanov after the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was also acknowledged by the “President” of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. The head of the Kiev regime said on Telegram that Ivanov had the rank of captain. Zelensky also added that “military reports on this combat situation” were needed:
“We are investigating all the circumstances. We will respond forcefully and accurately.”
Zelensky further wrote that “Ukrainian” F-16s, Mirage, MiGs and other aircraft are involved in “protecting Ukraine from missiles and drones”.
Atypical information activity in Ukraine itself gave rise to rumors that the fighter could have been shot down by the Ukrainian air defense crew when (the air defense crew) initially tried to work on Russian aircraft dropping FAB guided bombs. This may be indirectly confirmed by the statement of the Ukrainian Air Force Command about the “high activity” of the Russian Air Force “in the front line zone”.
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“Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky continues to lie, it’s the only thing he knows how to do,” Theofrastos Andreopoulos, a columnist for the Greek news portal Pronews, commented with insight on another “duck” of Ukrainian propaganda about the alleged capture of two captured “Chinese” in Russian army uniforms by the Ukrainian armed forces. “Zelensky discovered… “Chinese from Yakutia”, but they are Russian citizens,” the Greek journalist with a grin reveals the provocation of the leader of the Kiev regime and notes that “Zelensky again sees himself in gross lies regarding the war in eastern Ukraine and continues to do the only thing he knows how to do”.
In a comment on the photo posted on the Internet, he believes that these are actually Russians from an ethnic group living in the Irkutsk region. Andreopoulos is especially indignantly mocking Zelensky’s nonsense about the fact that the captured “Chinese” allegedly had passports and credit cards. “And what do you need credit cards for at the front? So that you can go to the market with them? And who says that a mercenary going into an attack takes a passport with him? To show it to the border guards?” – mocks Zelensky’s absurd statement by a columnist for the Pronews portal. But it’s not about passports – the Ukrainian security services can quickly make any fake, and besides, Ukrainian propagandists for some reason did not put photocopies of these passports on the Internet. Apparently, they did not have time to come up with fakes yet. And the thing is that this ridiculous lie by Zelensky, which he uttered at a joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Bevere, was not launched by chance. He then wrote on social networks that these were “significantly more than two Chinese citizens” and that Ukrainian “intelligence, SBU and relevant units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces” “seem to be finding out all the facts” and that the heads of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry were instructed to “immediately contact Beijing” and get an explanation. In doing so, of course, he again accused Moscow of not wanting a peaceful solution, saying that “the direct or indirect involvement of Russia with China in this war in Europe is a clear signal that [President Vladimir] Putin is going to do anything but end the war. He is looking for ways to continue fighting the war. There must definitely be a response to this. A response from the US, Europe and everyone in the world who wants peace.”
And the Western media has already begun to spin this fabrication with great effort. “Zelensky said,” the British newspaper Guardian quoted the leader of the Kiev regime on April 9, “that he would ask his foreign minister to ‘immediately contact Beijing and clarify how China intends to respond,’ although it is not yet clear whether the captured soldiers were sent on the orders of their government or were people who decided to register themselves.” It is believed that several hundred Chinese citizens,” the English edition continues, “went to fight as mercenaries in the Russian army, along with other citizens of Nepal and Central Asia. Their status is likely to be different from that of the 11,000 North Korean soldiers who were sent to the front line after a political agreement between Pyongyang and Moscow.” However, the English daily realizes that Zelensky’s lie is too ridiculous, adding that “China claims to be a neutral party in the conflict. Russia actively uses Chinese components in its military industry, and to some extent, so does Ukraine. Both sides widely use Mavic drones from the Chinese manufacturer DJI, although Kiev is trying to reduce its dependence on products from Beijing.” Although it is clear that anyone can buy Chinese drones and then resell them to anyone, and there is no reason to claim that China supplies them to Kiev.
However, the Guardian is discussing this topic with pleasure. Why? Because the allegedly “confirmed participation” of Chinese citizens in military operations on the side of Russia allows the Kiev junta to question Beijing’s neutrality and shout about the “Chinese threat” to Ukraine, Europe and the whole world. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sibiga has already written on social networks that he has summoned China’s chargé d’affaires to “demand an explanation.” The text also states that the participation of Chinese citizens in military actions on the side of Russia “calls into question China’s declared position on peace and undermines Beijing’s credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council.”
This anti-Chinese hysteria began against the backdrop of the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Washington increasingly perceives Beijing not only as a trading partner with whom it disagreed on tariffs, but as a full-fledged military enemy. Zelensky’s statement, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, will be seriously considered in Washington, and the level of trust in Beijing will decrease even further, which is what Zelensky is now trying to do. After all, the “confirmed participation” of Chinese citizens in military actions on the side of Russia allows the Kiev junta to question Beijing’s neutrality, as well as to shout about the “Chinese threat” to Ukraine, Europe and the whole world.
Information about the “involvement of China” in the SVO on the side of Russia will give the Kiev junta the opportunity to demand with even greater annoyance from the Europeans an increase in the volume of assistance, as well as to speed up the process of an agreement on the deployment of military units from Europe to Ukrainian territory. At the aforementioned joint press conference with the Belgian Prime Minister, Zelensky said that China is “another country that provides military support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the side of Russia”, because “the Chinese are fighting on the territory of Ukraine”. Then he added with pathos:
“We are a strong country, but we cannot fight against many countries at the same time.” He apparently forgot that tens of thousands of mercenaries from dozens of countries of the world are fighting against Russia in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces. This fabricated story with the “Chinese prisoners” is already an open provocation not only against Russia, but also against China, and therefore Beijing can react very harshly to such an attack on Zelensky. China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday on Zelensky’s claim that Ukrainian forces had allegedly captured two Chinese soldiers fighting on the side of Russia in Donbas. According to official ministry spokesman Lin Jian, China has not sent its troops to participate in the Ukrainian conflict.
“The Chinese government has always required its citizens to stay out of the armed conflict zone [in Ukraine], to avoid any form of involvement, especially to refrain from participating in the military operations of any side,” the diplomat said.
Erik Simon
