Pentagon Confirms Death Of U.S. Airman In Ukrainian Fighter Jet Crash
By RFE/RL
The U.S. military has confirmed that a California-based airman was killed in the crash of a two-seat Ukrainian fighter jet during a joint exercise with NATO air forces in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian aviator was also killed in the October 17 crash of the Sukhoi Su-27 plane in the Khmelnytskyy region, some 180 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, the Ukrainian and U.S. militaries said.
"This is a sad day for the United States and Ukraine," said Major General Clay Garrison, director of the Exercise Clear Sky 2018 maneuvers.
Military authorities said the bodies of the two airmen had been recovered.
The identity of the American was being withheld for 24 hours to allow for the notification of family.
Kyiv identified the Ukrainian pilot killed as Colonel Ivan Petrenko.
The U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa said the American airman was taking part in a single-aircraft familiarization flight with a Ukrainian counterpart when the accident occurred.
No other aircraft were involved, and an investigation is being conducted by both militaries to determine the cause of the accident, it said in a statement.
Earlier, the U.S. Air Force said it was aware of "reports claiming a U.S. casualty," but it did not confirm the death.
The Ukrainian military said participants in the Clear Sky maneuvers held a ceremony at a nearby airfield to commemorate the airmen killed in the incident.
Some 950 personnel from Ukraine, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Britain, and the United States are participating in the exercise.
Russia Detains Crimean Deputy Prime Minister On Bribery Charges
By RFE/RL
Authorities in Moscow have detained a deputy prime minister of Crimea’s Russia-imposed government, Vitaly Nakhlupin, for alleged bribe-taking.
Igor Mikhailichenko, Crimea's deputy prime minister, said in a statement on October 17 that he had informed the peninsula’s prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, about the detainment.
Mikhailichenko said the details of the case cannot be disclosed as an investigation is under way.
Aksyonov said in a statement on Facebook that Nakhlupin’s detention was linked to investigations against unspecified regional officials and state "structures."
Nakhlupin, 52, has served as Crimea's deputy prime minister since January 2016.
He previously led the Crimean parliament's committee for economic, financial, and tax policies.
Nakhlupin is not the first deputy prime minister to be detained after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Kazurin was arrested in January 2017 and later sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison on bribery charges.
Ukraine says it is strengthening security along the administrative border with Crimea.
Latest details from our news desk.
Journalist Yekaterina Keizo told RFE/RL said that when she got to the scene at about 12:30 p.m. local time, "they were carrying the injured out of the building."
"More and more ambulances were arriving every minute, but there were not enough," Keizo said. "They were putting people with IV drips into regular [minivans]."
She said that eyewitness told her that "two men" had entered the college and that "one blew himself up in the cafeteria" while the other "walked around the rooms and shot everybody at random. He just shot everyone he saw."
According to RFE/RL's Russian service, medical authorities say one of the wounded has died in hospital, raising the total number of those killed in the Kerch attack to 19.