Day: July 22, 2026
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On 8 July 2026, a Ukrainian Air Force F-16 shot down a Russian Su-35 in air-to-air combat.
First confirmed aerial duel kill of the war for the AFU’s F-16 fleet.
Russian channels immediately pushed the line that a Patriot battery, not the F-16, made the kill, and that the fighter was only bait.
On 21 July 2026, responding to Senator Dick Durbin on Ukraine’s air defense buildout, General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed it plainly in sworn testimony before Congress: a Ukrainian F-16 had shot down a Russian fighter jet for the first time.
A Ukrainian F-16 pilot can now paint their first Su-35 air-to-air kill on his plane.
And the Russians can keep coping about all their destroyed no-analogue military equipment scattered across Ukraine.
