Two killed in Ukraine overnight as Russian forces target Sumy and Donetsk regions

One person was killed and another eight were injured in a Russian missile strike on an industrial facility in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy in the early hours of Friday, the regional Prosecutor General’s Office said.

The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that Russia had launched a ballistic missile and 18 kamikaze drones at targets in Ukrainie overnight, adding that 12 drones had been intercepted.

Another civilian was killed and 11 more were injured in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian National Police said on Friday, as Russian forces continued to strike residential areas in the cities of Kostyantynivka and Chasiv Yar.

The Russian Defence Ministry has not acknowledged the strike on Sumy on its Telegram channel, saying only that Russian reconnaissance troops had destroyed “an unmanned aerial vehicle control centre” run by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) near Chasiv Yar.

Long considered the cornerstone of Ukraine’s defence in the Donetsk region, Chasiv Yar has seen its easternmost district fall to the advancing Russian military in recent weeks, and Russian troops are continuing their attempts to advance further into the city.

A US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed in Ukraine on Monday, killing its Ukrainian pilot during an operation to repel a massive Russian missile attack, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Thursday, adding that the loss of the state-of-the-art aircraft was “a major blow” to Kyiv, which only received six F-16s from its Western allies in August after months of preparations.

Naming the dead pilot as Oleksiy Mes, the WSJ described him as “one of the better known Ukrainian pilots” and said that he had made frequent media appearances and had even visited Washington to lobby the US to send F-16 jets to Ukraine.

The AFU confirmed the loss of the F-16 on Thursday evening, adding that the Ukrainian Defence Ministry had established a commission to investigate the causes of the crash.

The Ukrainian Air Force honoured Oleksiy Mes in a Telegram post on Thursday, calling him “a strong and dedicated warrior, a highly skilled pilot” and a patriot. “Oleksiy saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles. Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life,” the tribute read.