Did Russia Shoot Down an F-16—And Santa Claus?

On Thursday, the Kremlin claimed to have shot down a US-made plane F-16 Fighting Falcon. A multirole fighter jet reportedly hit a Russian air defense system over southeastern Ukraine. Kiev has not confirmed the loss of the F-16, which, if true, would be the first Western-built and supplied fixed-wing aircraft to be lost in the conflict, which has been ongoing since February 2022.

“An F-16 aircraft was shot down in the Zaporizhzhia region at the launch site,” Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday via social messaging app Telegram.

Tass also reported“Chairman of the Russian Chamber of Citizens Commission for Sovereignty, Patriotic Projects and Support for Veterans, Vladimir Rogov [said] that the F-16 aircraft was shot down in the Zaporozhye region during preparations for a missile attack on that region.”

Russia previously claimed in September that it had shot down a Fighting Falcon, but this was later proven to be a lie. However, Kiev confirmed in August that the F-16 was lost while attempting to shoot down a Russian cruise missile, and there have since been reports that it may have been friendly fire involving one of Ukraine’s US-supplied MIM-104s. Patriot air defense systems.

Reward paid!

According to Bulgarian army (not to be confused with the Bulgarian armed forces), Sergey Shmotyev, CEO of Russian energy company Fores, said he would pay a reward of 15 million rubles ($145,000) for the first downed Fighting Falcon. It is not clear whether this will refer to the plane reported to have been shot down on Thursday or to future F-16s.

This is not the first such bounty that Russian oligarchs have offered the country’s military—while the Kremlin has also given out bounties for Western-made hardware, including German Leopard 2 and American M1 Abrams main battle tanks (MBTs). The company had put a prize on the fighter in July.

F-16 in Ukraine

In August 2023US President Joe Biden approved the transfer of F-16s from several NATO members. A year later, in early August 2024, Ukraine received the first ten Fighting Falcons.

NATO members Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway promised to provide about ninety fourth-generation aircraft.

However, Ukrainian airmen mostly underwent a kind of “crash course,” with F-16 training reduced to a few months instead of the years that Western pilots undergo. This fact may have led to the loss of one of the F-16s just weeks after arriving in the country. Efforts were made to increase training Ukrainian airmen receive on F-16.

The American-made multirole fighter was used to successfully shoot down Russian missiles and drones fired at Kiev and other Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. In addition, an F-16 of the Ukrainian Air Force was also attributed in October with knocking down Russian woman Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name Fullback).

Passenger plane and Santa’s sleigh down!

News of the downed F-16 comes just one day after an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing at least thirty-eight of the sixty-seven people on board. It is claimed that the plane was shot down by a Russian air defense system.

And on Friday, a Russian blogger published a propaganda video which showed Santa Claus being shot down over Moscow with the help of De Moroz – the Slavic version of Saint Nicholas or Father Christmas. The video ends with Santa Claus telling a Russian soldier: “We don’t need anything foreign in our sky. Happy New Year!”

Author experience and expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a writer from Michigan. He has contributed more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites with more than 3,200 published articles during a twenty-year career in journalism. He writes regularly on military equipment, firearms history, cyber security, politics and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing writer for Forbes and Cleaning jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can send an e-mail to the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image credit: Shutterstock.

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