A Ukrainian pilot was killed and his F-16 fighter jet crashed after Russia launched a huge aerial assault involving hundreds of drones and scores of missiles overnight, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

A Ukrainian F-16 supersonic fighter supplied by the West was shot down with the loss of a “hero” pilot amid a desperate operation to counter 500-plus strikes by Vladimir Putin’s forces

Russian Su-34s are the main aircraft Russia uses to launch missile and bomb strikes on Ukrainian positions and settlements. As of Saturday, 37 Russian Su-34s and 158 aircraft in total had been destroyed or damaged since February 2022 according to Oryx, a website tracking war losses by using imagery as proof.