Life and service of Oleksiy Mesia

"Munfish" destroyed three cruise missiles and one attack drone during its last combat sortie, reports the Zahid air command. To shoot down Russian missiles this week, Ukraine used F-16 aircraft for the first time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said during a press conference on August 27.

The reasons for the crash of the F-16 plane piloted by Oleksiy Mes are currently being investigated. This happened only three weeks after Ukraine showed the first American-made aircraft.

Farewell to Oleksiy Mes took place on August 29. He was posthumously awarded the rank of colonel. Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, called Oleksiy "one of the best fighter pilots."

How he promoted the acquisition of the F-16

"Moonfish" and "Juice" became the real faces of Ukraine's F-16 lobbying campaign. They spoke fluent English and reasonedly explained the urgent need to provide Ukraine with F-16s.

In June 2022, Ukrainian pilots flew to Washington to meet with members of the US Congress. There they spoke with Senator Mark Kelly, a former pilot and astronaut.

At some meetings, director and actor Sean Penn supported them with his presence.

"The Russians have an obvious technical advantage in the number of fighters. We believe that the provision of American fighters will allow us to at least match them or even surpass them. We also believe that these planes will help us protect Ukraine from further escalation with Russia," said Oleksiy Mes in an interview with the American channel CNN, which he gave together with Andrii Pilshikov in June 2022.

For security reasons, the pilots hid their faces whenever they appeared on camera and used only their callsigns in public appearances.

After a meeting in Washington with Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, he introduced the Ukraine Fighter Pilots Act to the House of Representatives of the US Congress.

"When I met the Ukrainian pilots "Jus" and "Moonfish", I had a bad feeling that they would not survive this war. "Juice" died in August 2023, "Moonfish" - on Monday. They fought like hell for Ukraine and the F16. My regards. Glory to Ukraine," the congressman wrote on the X network and published a photo with the pilots.

Moonfish was one of the first eight Ukrainian pilots who learned to fly the F-16 in Denmark in the fall of 2023.

"We all saw how much the enemy outnumbered us, felt it on our own skin. We felt how disappointing it can be when you cannot shoot down a cruise missile or a drone, as the equipment is not designed for this," commented Oleksiy Mes to Ukrainian journalist Kristina Berdynskikh during the training.

Studying in Kharkiv

Oleksiy Mes was born on October 20, 1993 in Shepetivka, Khmelnytskyi region. There he studied at a local school.

"Juice" and "Moonfish" were peers and studied together at the Ivan Kozhedub Kharkiv National University of the Air Force. Graduated from university in 2016.

"This is our graduation, which the whole of Ukraine and the Air Force are proud of," Brigadier General Serhii Golubtsov, chief of aviation of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said at the pilot's farewell.

"I was lucky to be the instructor who gave him a ticket to the sky on the MiG-29," Golubtsov noted.

After the death of Oleksiy Mesia, the mother of Andriy Pilshchikov, Lilia Averyanova, published a photo of them together from their cadet days in Kharkiv.

After the death of "Jus", "Moonfish" remembered him as a colleague and a friend whom he misses enough to talk to and consult with. "I hope we don't let him down," Oleksiy wrote to Andriy's mother on the anniversary of his friend's death on August 25, 2024, the day before the disaster.

F-15 flights

In 2019, as part of the cooperation program between Ukraine and the USA, Oleksiy Mes participated in the aerial refueling of the F-15D Eagle fighter jet from the 144th Fighter Wing of the US Air National Guard.

Oleksiy Mes, a MiG-29 pilot at the time, became the first Ukrainian pilot to observe mid-air refueling in the back seat of an Eagle.

In June 2022, he became the commander of a squadron of Ukrainian MiG-29 fighters.

"He was always a leader […] He was a real commander," said Serhii Golubtsov at his farewell.

As part of the military tradition, two MiG-29 fighter jets flew in the sky over Shepetivka to say goodbye to the pilot.

Oleksiy is survived by his parents, sister, wife and daughter. His father is an active serviceman in the Zahid air command.

Among the reasons for the downing of the F-16 plane, both pilot error and "friendly fire" from Ukrainian air defense are being considered, the media reported.

An interlocutor in the military command told the BBC that the plane was not damaged by enemy fire and it was not pilot error, but a full investigation of the circumstances is underway.