KYIV, Ukraine, July 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Mourners gathered at an ornate Orthodox cathedral in Kyiv on Thursday to pay their final respects to a Ukrainian F-16 pilot who died while fending off a Russian bombardment.

Ukraine received F-16s from its allies following months of appeals last year, and the fighter jets have been deployed to thwart escalating Russian aerial barrages.

Pilot Maksym Ustymenko was killed during Russia's largest-ever aerial assault on June 29, when Moscow launched 537 drones and missiles at targets across Ukraine.

"Maksym was a very unique person," Brigadier General Oleg Zakharchuk told AFP under the gold domes of Saint Michael's cathedral in Kyiv.

"He was very proud of the fact that he had mastered this aircraft and understood that he could use its combat capabilities to their full potential," Zakharchuk added.

Ukraine is understood to have a very small pool of trained F-16 pilots, and even expedited training takes months to complete for the country's most experienced air force personnel.

Three F-16 pilots have been killed and four of the jets lost in combat since they were confirmed delivered to Ukraine last August.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously decorated Ustymenko with the country's highest military honours, the Hero of Ukraine award. 

Authorities in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, named a street after the pilot, local media said.

Zelensky said the pilot had been serving since the Kremlin fomented a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine more than a decade ago.

The air force said Ustymenko -- born in 1993 -- downed seven Russian projectiles the night he died and steered his damaged jet away from crashing into a village.

"But he did not have time to eject," their statement said, adding: "he died a hero."