Ukraine has decided which Western fighters it will build its air force around. The Air Force settled on three platforms, the Swedish JAS 39 Gripen, the French Rafale, and the American F-16, aviation commander Colonel Oleksandr Diakiv said in a segment by the Air Force Command.

Ukraine entered the full-scale war flying Soviet-era jets and has spent three years assembling a Western fleet. F-16s arrived in 2024 and now fly combat missions. France has delivered Mirage 2000s, and Sweden has pledged to deliver Gripen. The choice narrows Ukraine's field to three types it can sustain, arm, and repair at war tempo.

The choice weighed more than performance

Ukraine assessed every platform that might suit it, Diakiv said, and concluded it could operate three with maximum effectiveness. The decision turned on aircraft and operating costs, weapons, logistics, parts availability, what Ukrainian infrastructure can support, and the speed of repairs and battle-damage recovery.

"We went through all the platforms that were possibly acceptable for us. And we came to the conclusion that Ukraine can use three platforms with maximum effectiveness," Diakiv explained.

The F-16 already operates in Ukraine, so the Air Force has both the aircraft and trained pilots, technicians, and specialists who know its quirks. That experience will speed the adoption of the other Western types, according to Diakiv.

The Gripen suits a country under fire

Also, Diakiv singled out the Gripen, a multirole fighter that can strike air and ground targets and carries Swedish and other European weapons. Its main advantage is that it demands little infrastructure.

The jet can operate from unprepared surfaces and stretches of road and requires minimal ground crew to prepare for another flight in 15 to 20 minutes, according to the commander.

The aircraft is only part of the system

Taking on a new platform is not a matter of handing over jets, Diakiv believes. Weapons, ground support, parts, logistics, and trained people all have to arrive together, and Ukrainian pilots, engineers, and logistics specialists are now training abroad.

"You can buy a plane, you can buy a missile, you can buy a bomb, but you cannot buy experience," Diakiv said.

That combat experience, according to the colonel, is increasingly shaping the aviation coalition, with allies helping Ukraine realize ideas drawn from its own fighting rather than only offering finished solutions.

Romania destroyed an explosives-laden maritime drone near its critical Neptun Deep gas platform and recovered debris from a separate aerial drone that crashed on its soil, the Romanian Defense Ministry reported. The incidents came during a major Russian attack on Ukraine on 20 August that killed 14 people in Kyiv city and oblast, caused incidents in Moldova, and triggered air defense activation in Poland.

F-16 fires cannon at sea drone near gas platform

A commercial vessel spotted a drifting maritime drone near the Neptun Alpha production platform, approximately 80 nautical miles east of Constanța, at around 06:28, the Defense Ministry said. Two Romanian F-16s scrambled with orders to fire. One engaged the target with its onboard cannon—the first time Romania used a cannon against a drone and the first engagement against a maritime drone. All previous shootdowns used air-to-air missiles against aerial drones.

The country's Defense Minister Radu Miruță said the drone was carrying explosives and was spotted just hundreds of meters from the platform where several hundred people work. Through a recently established direct communication channel, Ukraine confirmed the drone was not of Ukrainian origin. President Nicușor Dan directly blamed Russia, condemning "the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation."

The engagement came nine days after Romanian navy divers destroyed two Gerbera-type drones drifting near the same platform by controlled detonation.

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Aerial drone crashes in Romania's Tulcea County

Earlier overnight, Romanian radar detected aerial targets near the Ukrainian border at 02:23, the Defense Ministry said. Two Spanish F-18s from NATO's air policing mission and a Romanian IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter scrambled. At 03:21, a drone crossed into Romanian airspace 13 km east of Galați and crashed three minutes later near the village of Grindu in Tulcea County. No casualties or damage were reported. The fragments posed no explosive hazard.

The crash came four days after a Spanish F-18 shot down another drone over Romanian airspace, Euronews reported. Romanian F-16s intercepted three Russian drones in July.

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Poland activates defenses, Moldova hit by drone spillover

Poland's Operational Command activated military aircraft and ground-based air defense systems during the Russian attack as a preventive measure. The Netherlands provided air defense support. No breach of Polish airspace was recorded.

Moldova faced multiple incidents. At 03:16, the country's National Army detected what was preliminarily identified as a Shahed-136/Geran-2 drone crossing from Ukraine near Kotlovyna in Odesa Oblast into Moldova's Gagauzia region. It returned to Ukrainian airspace six minutes later, public broadcaster Moldova1 said.

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Separately, an explosion at a truck parking lot on Ukrainian territory about 150 meters from the Giurgiulești-Reni border crossing at around 03:45 sparked a fire that spread onto Moldovan soil, Newsmaker reported. Border police found drone fragments in a crater approximately 1 km inside Moldovan territory. 

A lieutenant colonel flying a U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet was killed during the overnight aerial strike while on duty, the Air Force said on June 29.

Russia launched a "massive" missile and drone strike across Ukraine early on June 29, unleashing 537 aerial targets, including 477 drones and 60 missiles, according to the Air Force..

Maksym Ustymenko, born in 1993, was killed after shooting down seven aerial targets, the Air Force said in a statement. The Air Force added that his aircraft was damaged while he was trying to shoot down the last one, losing altitude and crashing.

"Maksym Ustymenko did his best to take the plane away from the settlement, but did not have time to eject," the Air Force said on Telegram, honoring that he died "like a hero."

"The work of Ukrainian pilots is extremely dangerous and risky, both when striking enemy ground targets and repelling air attacks," the Air Force added, saying that the F-16 pilots destroy dozens of Shahed-type drones.

In his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously awarded Ustymenko with the Hero of Ukraine award.

"Today, he was killed defending our skies and our people from yet another massive Russian attack... It is painful to lose people like him," Zelensky said in offering condolence to loved ones.

Russia has intensified its aerial campaign on Kyiv and other cities over the past month. Zelensky said that Russia has launched over 2,700, or roughly 9.5%, of the total number of Shahed-type drones deployed during the entire full-scale war in June alone.

Though well protected with Western air defense systems compared to other cities, Kyiv has also faced a number of deadly attacks in June, with the June 17 missile and drone strike on Kyiv killing 30.  

The Air Force said that Ukraine had to use "all available means" to repel the Russian aerial attack overnight on June 29, including elite F-16 jets.

Ukraine received its first batch of F-16 jets in the summer of 2024, but it has not revealed many details about how and where they are used in operations since they are a high-priority target for Moscow. Their pilots have received months of training abroad.

Ukraine war latest: US signals more Patriot missiles for Kyiv after Zelensky-Trump talks at NATO summit

Key developments on June 25: * Zelensky, Trump hold talks on NATO summit sidelines * ‘Something unknown’ hits key Russian drone facility in Taganrog, Ukrainian official says * Russia has launched over 28,000 Shahed drones at Ukraine since 2022, with nearly 10% fired in June alone, Zelensky says * Donetsk Oblast city “on

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk