A Ukrainian F-16 pilot said Moscow’s forces appear to particularly shy away from Western aircraft because they know how deadly the jets can be.
Ukraine’s air force released his comments on Wednesday as part of its first-ever video interview with an F-16 pilot. His face was obscured, and the air force said it withheld the pilot’s name and call sign for security purposes.
“With the arrival of Western equipment, the situation with carrying out fighter cover missions has improved,” said the pilot in Ukrainian. “We now have different weaponry, more high-quality weaponry. The Russians understand that as well.”
He said Ukraine has been deploying its American F-16 Fighting Falcons and French Mirage 2000-5s in more close-range encounters.
“From their actions, we can see that they are starting to retreat. They are afraid to approach us,” he added. “After all, there is a living person sitting there, too, who also does not want to die.”
The pilot said Ukraine has been using its F-16s for tactical strikes like “a scalpel,” while its Soviet MiG-29s, Su-24s, and Su-27s are assigned more widely to suppress and destroy targets like “hammers and sledgehammers.”
Ukraine’s Soviet aircraft are often sent to bomb Russian targets at close range, which the pilot said means his comrades have to fly “dangerously close to the front line.”
So Ukraine sends it F-16s and Mirages to provide cover for their Soviet counterparts, he said.
That style of attack has materially changed how Moscow’s troops react, the pilot added.
“They know roughly the technical characteristics of our weaponry. They know where to advance, where to retreat,” he said, adding that Ukraine has been trying to exploit those gaps.
The pilot also said the F-16 and Mirage offer Ukraine the ability to conduct “very, very precise” strikes.
“At the moment, we can only strike at tactical depth,” he said of Ukrainian pilots assigned to NATO fighters. “But these attacks are extremely precise.”
“If we want, our bomb can fly straight through someone’s window,” he added.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a comment request sent by Business Insider.
The F-16’s edge over Ukraine’s Soviet aircraft
The F-16 is an older design by Western standards — with more than 50 years of service — but is still valued by Ukraine for its ability to carry and launch a wide array of NATO precision-guided munitions against both air and land targets.
These include the Joint Direct Attack Munition – Extended Range, which has a reported range of 50 miles, and the AIM-120, a medium-range air-launched missile that takes out other aviation targets. Ukraine has both weapons.
This capability means that the F-16 can be a versatile tool for fighting other aircraft, conducting ground strikes, or suppressing Russian air defenses.
Some of its Soviet aircraft, like the MiG-29, are also multirole fighters, but the F-16 has better radar systems, electronic jammers, and range. In January, Ukraine said one of its pilots destroyed a record of six Russian missiles in a single sortie.
Meanwhile, Dassault’s Mirage is another combat-proven aircraft being sent to Ukraine, though it’s generally limited to firing French munitions. For example, it can launch the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missile but has to stick with the shorter-range MICA air-to-air missile when dealing with aerial targets.
Kyiv has been receiving F-16s from European allies since the summer of 2024 and got its first tranche of Mirages from France in February.
Ukraine has been tight-lipped about the number of jets it’s received. Countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark have pledged to deliver over 100 F-16s to Ukraine, but the entire process can take months to years.
Still, Ukraine has to be careful with its valuable Western jets. Russia’s surface-to-air missile defenses, such as the S-400, are formidable, and Ukrainian pilots have been known to limit flying altitude or range to lower exposure to them.
Kyiv has already lost one F-16 when a top pilot crashed in August while fighting cruise missiles and drones near the capital.
Earlier this month, several pro-Kremlin Telegram channels said that another F-16 was shot down in the Sumy region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the report when speaking to journalists on March 19.
“The Russians are lying that they shot down something there, they didn’t shoot down anything,” he said.
Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine needs 128 F-16s to fight effectively against Russia.
Recently, Ukraine’s F-16 program was thrown into question when President Donald Trump paused military aid to Kyiv in early March. The aid was eventually resumed when Ukraine agreed to US-brokered terms for a cease-fire.
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