A Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed during a wide-ranging Russian attack involving hundreds of missiles and drones, officials in Kyiv said on June 29.
The attack damaged homes and infrastructure in several parts of the country—including the capital, Kyiv—and left 12 people injured, local authorities said.
While the attack was underway, explosions were heard across the capital and in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, where Russian attacks are much less frequent.
Maksym Kozytskyy, governor of the Lviv region, which shares a border with Poland, said the aerial attacks had targeted the city’s critical infrastructure.
Another city in Lviv, Drohobych is located to the southwest of the regional capital.
Citing Ukrainian health authorities, Kozytskyy said that a “slight excess of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide” had been detected after the Russian attack.
He added, however, that there was “no threat to life for residents of Drohobych.”
According to the Ukrainian military, Russia launched 60 missiles and more than 450 drones at targets across the country in the early hours of June 29.
Thirty-eight missiles and more than 200 drones were downed before reaching their targets, it said, adding that scores more drones had been neutralized by electronic countermeasures.
In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the F-16 pilot killed during the Russian attack, who he identified as Maksym Ustymenko.
According to Zelenskyy, Ustymenko had been flying missions since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists seized parts of eastern Ukraine.
“He mastered four types of aircraft and had important results to his name in defending Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “It is painful to lose such people.”
The Ukrainian leader called for stepped-up support from Kyiv’s Western allies, including the United States, particularly in terms of air defenses.
“Maksym did everything he could to steer the aircraft away from a populated area,” it said in the post. “He didn’t have time to eject.”
Since Ukraine began operating F-16s last year, it is known to have lost at least three of the multirole fighter aircraft.
Kyiv has kept the size of its F-16 fleet under wraps, but the U.S.-made fighter jets are believed to play an integral role in defending Ukrainian skies from Russian attack.
Russian Forces in Dnipropetrovsk
On June 30, Russian state media reported that Russian forces had captured the first village in Ukraine’s east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk following months of slow-but-steady advances.Russia’s state-run RIA news agency quoted Vladimir Rogov, a pro-Russian official, as saying that Russian forces were now in control of the village of Dachnoye, which sits just inside Dnipropetrovsk.
“Russian troops drove units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of the first settlement in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying.
“We are talking about the village of Dachnoye, where a cleanup [operation] is underway.”
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the claim, which has yet to be confirmed by either Russia’s defense ministry or Ukrainian sources.
In 2022, Russia invaded and effectively annexed the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Kyiv has vowed to recover all lost territory by force of arms, despite ongoing efforts by Washington to secure a temporary cease-fire.
Moscow has not made any claim to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which shares borders with Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
