Ukrainian fighter pilot 'died like a hero' fighting off huge Russian attack

A Ukrainian fighter pilot has been posthumously awarded the country's highest honour after being killed while fending off a "massive" Russian attack. Ukraine's air force said Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustymenko "died like a hero" after downing several Russian targets.

The F-16 pilot was helping to intercept a bombardment of hundreds of Russian drones and missiles in what one Ukrainian official said was Moscow's biggest aerial attack of the war yet. In a post on social media, Kyiv's air force said: "The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude."

The air force said he did "everything possible", flying the US-made aircraft away from a settlement but didn't have time to eject.

"He died like a hero," the post added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine to Lt Col Ustymenko, born in 1993.

Mr Zelensky made the announcement at the start of his nightly address and described Lt Col Usymenko as "one of our very best".

"His record includes truly significant achievements for Ukraine," Mr Zelensky said, explaining he had served on the frontline for several years.

It is believed Ukraine has now lost three F-16s during the conflict.

Kyiv's air force said Russia fired 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles across Ukraine overnight on Saturday.

Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed, it added.

Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine's air force, said the onslaught was "the most massive airstrike" on the country since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The attack targeted several regions, including western Ukraine, far from the front line.

Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace.

Three people were killed in each of the drone strikes in the Kherson, Kharkiv and the Dnipropetrovsk regions, officials said.

Another person was reported to have been killed by an airstrike in Kostyantynivka, while a man died in shelling in Kherson and the body of a 70-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a nine-story building also hit by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region.