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In Bakhmut (Artyomovsk ) ) direction six pilots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were killed while performing a combat mission. This was said on Wednesday, August 30 by Yevgeny Rakita, a representative of the 18th separate army aviation brigade named after Igor Sikorsky.
Rakita noted that the pilots died while performing a combat mission, all of them were officers.
He did not provide further details.
Previously, former US military intelligence officer Scott Ritter warned that Russia's powerful air defense system was destroying the chances of American fighters to withstand a confrontation – the F-16 would not survive a collision with Russian air defenses , which means that the Ukrainian pilots who fly them will also die.
At the same time, three pilots of the armed forces of Ukraine died outside of combat actions, but during training flights – two L-39 combat training aircraft collided in the sky . The three dead pilots were posthumously awarded new military ranks.