will, but how will wagner be in subordinated to the state? putin benefited from wagner being apart from the state, doing its own dirty business in africa but now the head of wagner has been done away with, presumably someone from the state will have to take over wagner, at least how i see things. will have to take over wagner, at least how i see things. thank you for that. one of ukraine s most celebrated fighter pilots, and two other airmen, have been killed in a mid air crash. captain andrii pilshchykov won fame taking part in close range aerial battles over kyiv during the early phase of russia s invasion, flying under the call sign juice. the three pilots were killed when two l 39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of kyiv. the ukrainian military called the deaths painful and irreparable losses. and the military paid tribute to him as a young officer with mega knowledge and mega talent . in an address, president volodymyr
zelensky acknowledged how much pilshchykov had done for the country. translation: an investigation is being carried out into what happened, and of course, all circumstances will be clarified. ukraine will never forget everyone who defended the free skies of our country. the bbc s diplomatic correspondent, paul adams, has more from kyiv. he was one of the most visible, best known pilots. part of a small band who played, as you said in that introduction, a key role in the beginning of the war, but also, later on, another equally important role, that of intercepting russian ballistic missiles. the other thing about him, and you heard itjust at the end of his clip there, was that he was looking forward to being one of those pilots who could sit in the cockpit of an american made f 16 and use that to give the ukrainians a bit more of an edge in the skies. well, as we now know and as this week has shown,
andrii pilshchykov won fame taking part in close range aerial battles over kyiv during the early phase of russia s invasion, flying under the call sign juice. the ukrainian military called the airmen s deaths painful and irreparable losses, and paid tribute to pilshchykov as a young officer with mega knowledge and mega talent . the crash involved two l 39 training planes flying over northern ukraine. well, last year andrii pilshchykov spoke to the bbc about the work he and his fellow pilolts were doing, especially the difficulty of shooting down russian cruise missiles. let s listen to some of what he said. your mission is to save the lives on the ground, to save the city. you re not able. it s a terrible feeling that somebody will die. somebody will die in minutes, and you didn t prevent that. after school, i entered into the air force university. it was a dream from childhood, from the age of five.
ukrainian air force, and i remember because i was here at the time, some people had concluded had already been destroyed on the ground, continue to fight at all, and not just continue to fight but actually helped to prevent russia s advance right at the beginning of the war. they continue to fly, they continue to play an important role in ukraine s air defences, to the point where at no point during this conflict except at the very, very beginning, had the russians felt capable, able, safe enough to fly over ukrainian held territory. that is the result of a whole number of factors including air defences that is due in part with the work of people likejuice. thank you very much for that update, diplomatic correspondent paul adams in kyiv.
taking part in close range aerial battles over kyiv during the early phase of russia s invasion, flying under the call sign juice. the three pilots were killed when two l 39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of kyiv. the ukrainian military called the deaths painful and irreparable losses. and the military paid tribute to him as a young officer with mega knowledge and mega talent . in an address, president volodymyr zelensky acknowledged how much pilshchykov had done for the country. translation: an investigation is being carried out into what happened, and of course, all circumstances will be clarified. ukraine will never forget everyone who defended the free skies of our country. our bbc ukrainian reporter zhanna bezpiatchuk has the latest. he was really unique in the ukrainian army.