The Ukrainian Air Force lost three of its most decorated pilots in what the country has claimed was a mid-air collision between two L-39 aircraft, after the jets were deployed on August 25 on a combat mission. It has been widely speculated that the aircraft may have been lost in combat, with the narrative of a crash being propagated to soften the blow to morale, with confirmed details on the incident remaining highly limited. Among the pilots lost was Major Andrii Pilshchyko, better known by his callsign ‘Juice,’ who had emerged as by far the most famous pilot in the country if not in all Eastern Europe and served as the ambassador for Ukrainian military aviation. Awarded the Order of Courage, Third Class, Pilshchyko had led efforts to gain donations of F-16 fighters and other Western equipment for his country, and visited Washington DC in July 2022 to address the U.S. Congress on the issue. The pilot had notably operated as part of the ‘Ghost of Kiev’ air unit, namely the 40th Tactical Aviation Division, which Ukrainian and Western media had initially widely reported gained tremendous numbers of kills against Russian fighters in the early weeks of escalated Russian-Ukrainian hostilities from February 2022. It was later widely confirmed, however, that these narratives had been propagated to boost morale with the Ukrainian fleet having gained no notable verified air to air combat victories.
A major achievement of the Ukrainian fleet has been its ability to keep its fighters flying 550 days into the war, with Soviet built MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters that form its backbone being well optimised to operating from makeshift airfields including paved roads. This has made it particularly difficult for the Russian Air Force to halt its operations entirely. Ukrainian aircraft have as a result been able to continue to provide support to ground forces using assets such as AGM-88 HARM anti radiation missiles and Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which can be fired from long ranges to avoid engagements with Russian fighters or air defence assets. Although Ukraine’s top combat aircraft where state of the art when they were inherited from the Soviet Union, they became largely obsolete in the three decades between then and 2022, leaving them at an overwhelming disadvantage in air to air engagements with Russian fighters such as Su-30SMs and Su-35s. Features such as their mechanically scanned array radars and lack of active radar guided missiles make them relatively easy targets. When equipped with modern long range air to ground weapons, however, they have proven capable of contributing meaningfully to the war effort, while for air defence the large albeit increasingly depleted Soviet built surface to air missile arsenal is relied on to deny Russian fighters greater freedom of action over Ukrainian skies.