Ukraine war briefing: F-16 crashes while chasing Russian air targets
An F-16 fighter jet crashed on a frontline mission with its pilot ejecting safely, Ukraine’s air force announced on Wednesday. The aircraft was on duty
An F-16 fighter jet crashed on a frontline mission with its pilot ejecting safely, Ukraine’s air force announced on Wednesday. The aircraft was on duty intercepting Russian airborne targets when it malfunctioned. The pilot was found safe and taken for medical treatment. Experts were examining the crash site. Ukraine has received F-16s from Nato countries including the Netherlands and Denmark. The director and founder of a Russian drone manufacturer was shot and wounded early on Wednesday in what prosecutors described as an “attempted murder”. Andrei Cherezov is head of the Russian Air Transport Laboratory, most famous for developing the “Ovod” family of combat drones. Cherezov was returning home from work at about 1am when he was attacked by an unknown assailant in Tula, about 150km (90 miles) south of Moscow, Russia’s Izvestia newspaper reported.
Ukrainian forces hit two of Russia’s biggest oil refineries over Tuesday night: a Lukoil refinery in Russia’s Perm region, more than 1,500km (900 miles) from Ukraine, and a refinery in Ryazan, about 400km (180 miles) from the border. Ukraine’s security service and military general staff announced the strikes. The refineries have a combined annual production capacity of around 220m barrels of oil, according to Ukraine. The Russian online retailer Wildberries, which Ukraine has targeted in recent days, said it evacuated employees from a facility in Ryazan. Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, is scrambling to restructure loans and cover lending losses because of Ukrainian drone attacks on the e-commerce company. Sberbank said the credit quality of online retailers and vendors had deteriorated following the attacks, with about 300 companies seeking to restructure loans.
Sberbank lends to both Wildberries and rival Ozon, whose facilities have not been targeted. The Russian rouble weakened by another 1.9% against the US dollar on Wednesday to its lowest since 3 April, market data showed. It has fallen by 14% against the dollar since 20 May, and has also fallen against the Chinese yuan, Russia’s most traded foreign currency. Ukrainian units have struck 201 Russian vessels over the past three weeks in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, which border both countries, a senior military official said. The tally does not include vessels hit by Ukraine’s security service and other military groups. Ukrainian forces also struck a naval base used by Russia’s Black Sea, according to the military general staff.
The BriefWire