Ukrainian F-16 pilot Maksym Ustimenko , who died while repelling a Russian air strike on June 29, trained with Andrey Pilshchikov (Dzhus), another Ukrainian pilot who died two years ago.
Pil'shchikov's mother, Liliya Averianova, spoke about this on Facebook.
Maxim Ustimenko was Juice's classmate
Averianova described Ustimenko as a “guy of steel” who had been her son’s classmate since his first year and “always strived to be the best.”
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“He was the super-intellect of the group, an excellent IT specialist. But he had big, strong wings. Great responsibility. Great dedication to the cause. He should have become an Air Marshal,” Averianova wrote.
Yulia Mes, the wife of another deceased pilot, Alexey Mes (Moonfish), published a joint photo of her husband with Ustimenko.
“We continue to lose the best. Maxim Ustimenko and Alexey Mes,” she captioned the photo, publishing a joint photo of the pilots.
Photo: Yulia Mes/Instagram
First class pilot and F-16 pilot Maxim Ustimenko died on the night of June 29 while repelling an enemy attack.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that while working on one of the Russian targets, Ustimenko's plane was damaged, after which it began to lose altitude. He took it away from the populated area, but did not have time to eject.
