Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, fired the commander of the country’s air force on Friday, four days after an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners crashed during a Russian bombardment and killed the pilot.

The order to dismiss Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website.

“We need to protect people. Protect personnel. Take care of all our soldiers,” Mr Zelensky said in an address minutes after the order was published. He said Ukraine needs to strengthen its army on the command level.

Lt Gen Anatolii Kryvonozhko was appointed acting air force commander, the army’s general staff said.

The dismissal came on the same day that Lt Gen Oleshchuk directed scathing criticism at a lawmaker who is deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s defence committee for her claims that the F-16 was downed by a Patriot air-defence system. Ukraine has received an unspecified number of the US-made systems.

Mariana Bezuhla cited unnamed sources for her claim and demanded punishment for those responsible for the error.

Lt Gen Oleshchuk accused Ms Bezuhla of defaming the air force and discrediting US arms manufacturers and said that he hoped she would face legal consequences for her claims.

“The truth will win,” Ms Bezuhla posted on X, formerly Twitter, shortly after the dismissal order was published.

The air force did not directly deny that the F-16 was hit by a Patriot missile, adding that US experts have joined the Ukrainian investigation into the crash.

Meanwhile, a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv using powerful plane-launched glide bombs killed six people, including a 14-year-old girl on a playground, and wounded 47 others, Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, said.

Mr Syniehubov said the bombs struck five locations across the city, which had a prewar population of about 1.4 million people.

One of the bombs hit a 12-storey apartment block, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor. Emergency crews searching for survivors feared the building could collapse.

Mr Zelensky pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.

The Kharkiv strike “wouldn’t have happened if our defence forces had the capability to destroy Russian military aviation at its bases. We need strong decisions from our partners to stop this terror”, Mr Zelensky said.