Unfortunately, we lost our fighter jet. A French plane, very effective, one of our Mirage jets, says Zelenskyj in a speech early on Wednesday.
The pilot survived and it was not shot down by the Russians, he adds.
According to Ukraine's air force, the plane crashed on Tuesday evening. Neither the pilot nor anyone on the ground is reported to have been injured.
"The pilot reported a malfunction in the flight equipment to the air traffic controller. He then acted competently, as expected in a crisis situation, and managed to eject", says the air force in a statement.
France began delivering fighter jets to Ukraine earlier this year. The Ukrainian pilots and aircraft mechanics have been trained on French soil.
The incident is an obvious setback for Ukraine, which has a dire need for air defense and aircraft to be able to protect the country from the daily Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
