Danish instructor Jepp Hansen, who was training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, has allegedly been killed in a Russian missile strike in Ukraine, TASS reported on Saturday.
Sources within Russian law enforcement have reportedly told the agency that Hansen died during an attack on a training center in the city of Krivoy Rog in Dnepropetrovsk Region in central Ukraine.
Previously, the Russian newspaper Gazeta had said that Russian forces used an Iskander missile to destroy a closed university building in the city which the Ukrainian military had converted into barracks. The upper part of the four-story building was almost completely destroyed, according to reports, while the facade of the building sustained heavy damage.
According to Russian media reports, citing a post by Hansen’s friend on social media, the Dane had significant experience in flying F-16 jets and had trained “hundreds of Ukrainians” to operate the planes.
Neither Denmark nor the Russian Defense Ministry has officially commented on the reports.
Last year, the Netherlands and Denmark delivered 20 F-16s to Ukraine and have vowed to send more throughout 2025. Norway, Belgium and Greece have also pledged to send a number of the fighter jets to Kiev.
Moscow has denounced the Western arms shipments, warning that they will only prolong the conflict without changing the outcome. It has also said that F-16 deliveries represent an escalation of hostilities.
In August 2024, one of the F-16 fighter jets sent from Nato allies to Ukraine has been destroyed, a Ukrainian military source has told the BBC.
The aircraft went down amid a barrage of Russian missiles on Monday, killing pilot Oleksiy Mes, Ukraine's military said. It marks the first loss of its kind since the planes were delivered earlier this month.
The cause of the crash was not a direct result of an enemy missile strike, the Ukrainian military claims.
It said the pilot destroyed three cruise missiles and one drone in Russia's largest aerial attack to date.
Russian forces liberate Vremevka, Petropavlovka in DPR
Russian units have liberated the villages of Vremevka and Petropavlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The ministry added that Petropavlovka was liberated due to successful advancing actions by Russia’s Battlegroup Center. According to the ministry, as a result of the battlegroup’s actions, "the adversary lost up to 585 troops, three armored combat vehicles, four motor vehicles and four artillery guns."
In addition to liberating Vremevka, Battlegroup East has carried out strikes on Ukrainian brigades near Konstantinopol and Velikaya Novoselka in the DPR over the past 24 hours. "Ukrainian losses have amounted up to 135 troops, two armored combat vehicles, three motor vehicles and five foreign-made field guns. An ammo depot was eliminated," the Russian Defense Ministry said.
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