Glory to the Heroes Blog
Ukraine and a New Kind of War (Part 3) Are US Air Bases in Danger of an attack like Operation Spider Web?
“What? To steal from the Empire? What do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands and an Imperial tool kit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it.” ~Cassian Andor
“The Nature of warfare has changed.'“
You will see this said over and over when journalists, bloggers, and pundits of all kinds reference Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web. This includes myself, who must interrupt this series entitled “Ukraine and a New Kind of War” to talk about Operation Spider Web. It is a significant event militaries around the world won’t soon forget. Having been caught unprepared, Russia must now spend resources to spread out and protect the remaining two thirds of their bomber fleet and other resources. They must check every truck, every cargo crate, and expand patrols over several miles outside their airbases. They can’t bother to probe Alaska for training purposed with the TU-85 bomber for quite some time.
United States intelligence had no idea. By all accounts, the world was shocked by a gamer bro and his girlfriend. As a result, many people ask . . . is the United States Military also as vulnerable. Yes and no.
Raytheon already has deployed high energy auto targeting lasers to most of our domestic bases, if not abroad. Obviously, the numbers and locations remain secret, but we have a layer of Defense Russia never dreamed. And the reason they are not as far along as we are in this layer of defense, is because they have been executing an unprovoked war which attrits their troops and equipment at such a rate as they can barely keep up.
Weapons like these at the link below however, are soon to be ready in mass in the United States. So far, these lasers have tracked and killed 400 drones of all types and sizes as they tried to maneuver to the target.
I won’t be naive. We aren’t completely invulnerable. Like any Empire, we can get fat and complacent. However, authoritarian empires at war are far more likely to have weaknesses exploited. The more authoritarian we become, the more vulnerable we become to innovative multidimensional warfare. We have to win the fight against this idea that we elect kings who have ultimate “command” over the government. However, a military who serves the people will remain vigilant and adaptive.
What about Ukraine? Are they vulnerable to a similar type of attack? Maybe. But If I were a betting man, I would assume the country who struck first would be more than ready for a similar type of attack. And Ukraine is not fat and satisfied. They will never be satisfied until Russia is gone from their lands.
Ukraine and a New Kind of War (Part 2)
Russian T-90s with "Cope Cages"
Perhaps you’ve seen images like this Russian tank, with a funny cage on top. If you didn’t know, the Russians found it necessary to build them on their tanks and vehicles as countermeasure to drone strikes. These are called “Cope Cages” – and both sides of the conflict have seen fit to use them. Unfortunately, for the Russians (And fortunate for the rest of the world) Ukraine create tactics of “double tapping” a caged vehicle. (Jankowicz, May 2024) The first drone burns through the cage, and the second one finishes the job as shown here. Youtuber Engineer React Breaks it down for us.
And yet, what is going on here. A Ukrainian drone with a cope cage? Why?
A Ukrainian Drone with a “Cope Cage”
For the answer, the excellent Substack page
will show you many examples of drone against drone dogfights. The Ukrainians started it first, ramming their cheap drones into much more expensive Russian ones. Just like with tanks, the Russians tried placing cope cages on the vital parts of their drones. Putting a protective cage around a drone is nothing new, but you also want to protect your drone not only form other hunter-killer dogfighting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), but from electronic attack.
So, not only does your cope cage need for your drone need to be physically strong, but it also needs to be made of certain materials. This is called a “Faraday Cage”. It sounds a little more optimistic than “cope cage” does it not? Using some good old-fashioned high school science, Ukrainians have been able to make their drones a bit more survivable on the modern battlefield. (Post, November 2024)
Faraday cages and coverings on drone sensors can protect from EAImagine if they didn’t have to use aluminum foil and chicken wire, but had the full support of engineers from say . . . Raytheon or Northrop Grumman. It could be a totally different war which would get out of hand much too fast for Russians to counter. Already Russia is looking for ways to counter the naval drones that have decimated their fleet. And we will talk more about that soon.
Works Cited
Jankowicz, Mia Russia is covering armored vehicles with elaborate anti-drone 'cope cages.' Video shows them getting hit anyway.. Business Insider. 8 May 2024
Post, Kollen, (02 November 2024). Deep Dive: Faraday cage use in Russia-Ukraine drones". Counteroffensive Pro
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Ukraine and a New Kind of War (New Series): Ukrainian Weapons win the Black Sea
Back when I served two tours over Afghanistan and Iraq, we as AWACS crew needed to be aware of our Navy’s operations in the Persian Gulf. Specifically, we needed to be able to communicate and share air traffic track information with Aegis cruisers. These cruisers are the primary sea to air defense for our navy, along with a lot of other important countermeasures. The biggest we could imagine, should insurgents or Iranian forces try to attack the fleet, would have been a swarm of small kamikaze boats loaded with explosives. In those days, AWACS had some ways to assist with such a threat, but they were rather primitive. Yet our Navy felt like they were prepared for all sorts of innovative attack strategies against the fleet.
The Moskva in her final hours
Russia probably felt like they were prepared. They were prepared for all sorts of attacks conventional and unconventional. Yet they were not prepared for Ukrainian ingenuity. In this discussion we are going to talk about two Ukrainian-made assets which changed the course of the war in the Black Sea, and re-opened free trade in the region: The Neptune Cruise Missile, and their fleet of Naval Drones. Keep in mind this is not to downplay Ukraine’s need for Western weapons and equipment. It is to point out that they are innovative enough to produce and use their own weapons to great effect, so imagine what they could do with access to a larger arsenal of innovative weapons made even thirty years ago right here in the United States.
Early in the war, the Neptune missile likely delivered a critical blow to the Russian Navy. I use the word “likely” because I can validate the information. (But cannot share the sources.)
This is a step up from sharing the Ukrainian side of the story and the Russian side and then leaving it up to you to decide who to trust. The difference between the Ukrainian narrative and the Russian one is that different Ukrainian sources declared the same victory without coordinating with each other, (to include a facebook account) while the Russian response primarily comes from the mouth of Russian state media after the fact. I am declaring here, the Ukrainian account of this victory should be considered closest to the truth.
On 13 April 2022, just seven weeks after Roman Hrubov told the Russian Cruiser to go fuck itself, the Moskva suffered a severe explosion on the port side. Fires spread over the ship with an aging fire system unable to meet the demand, and ammunition ignited. A few surviving crew members reported casualties, but the number was never specified. Most of the crew was indeed evacuated from the crippled ship, which eventually overturned and sank on 14 April in the rough seas. Ukraine announced to the world that two of its Neptune missiles had hit their the target, causing “very serious damage.”
Let’s take a closer look at the Neptune, and I will break down for you how these weapons took the Russian flagship by surprise. Ukraine adapted an older Russian cruise missile, the Kh-35 antiship missile, and improved upon it, giving it avionics based on western designs and extending its range. The unclassified range for the Neptune is 200 Kilometers. Any time you find the unclassified range of a weapon, it is safe to assume the classified range is a larger number. In 2025 Ukraine upgraded the anti-ship missile again, dubbing the missile the “long Neptune” the unclassified range became 1000km.
The missile is launched from an unassuming and frankly ugly tube launcher attached to a massive heavy truck. The missile has the range, is very mobile, and it packs a punch with a 150kg warhead. That will tear a hole in the side of any modern ship. This missile is designed to kill big ships. The Neptune is a formidable piece of Ukrainian engineering, but could it really get past the defenses of a state-of-the art, Russian cruiser?
First, we must consider the range. The regional governor of Odessa, Maksem Marchenko, claimed the missiles were fired from his oblast and struck the cruiser. The Moskva did indeed sink about 80nm south of Odessa—well within the range of the missiles.
The Moskva led a task force of two other guided missile cruisers and one frigate. We know this because the rescue ships for the Moskva crew are all named. Therefore, our two cruise missiles not only need to defeat the defenses of the Moskva, but several other ships armed with anti-cruise missile defenses. Modern warships have long range cruise missile defense in the form of counter missiles like the Russian SA-N-6 Grumble (S-300F) or the case of the United States, rolling airframe missiles (RAM), chaff, electronic attack, or in some cases even lasers.
Believe it or not, American Ships have almost fallen prey to cruise missiles more than a few times, so our military can imagine several mistakes the Moskva may have made. One of the more famous examples comes on the evening of may 17th 1987 to the USS Stark. There is a great video on this event here. Take a look at it and then return to finish this article.
USS Stark Hit by Two Iraqi Exocet Missiles, 1987 - Animated
We can imagine a similar scenario as this for the Moskva, only the rough seas and weather prevent the Russian cruiser from being saved. Even more recently, a Houthi cruise missile far less sophisticated than the Neptune, made it within a mile of the US destroyer USS Gravely before being shot down by auto-targeted Phalanx machine guns proudly made by my company, Raytheon. The Moskva has a similar machine gun defense system called the AK-630 cannon, but it would seem the Moska did not have as much luck as the USS Gravely. Since machine guns like the AK-630 and the Phalanx auto-target incoming missiles, the easiest way to defeat the system is to overwhelm it. American tactical minds estimated that in order to attack the Moskva, you would need to launch eleven Neptune cruise missiles simultaneously to get through the defenses with 5 missiles and sink the ship.
Ukraine fired two and hit with two. The reason they were able to do this probably had something to do with a coordinated strike involving drones. Ukraine did not quite have the innovative drone fleet in 2022 as it did three years later, although the Toloka TLK-150' drone torpedo and other Ukrainian navy drones would have been in development and near completion. At the time, Ukraine was relying on Turkish TB-2 drones to patrol the skies. By all accounts, tacticians suggest the TB2 was used to great effect to help confuse the targeting and tracking of the black sea fleet. While American intelligence also probably helped provide a good window to strike, (most likely coming from a P8- Poseidon in the area) Ukraine had practiced coordinating TB-2 maritime recon in conjunction with their Neptune Missile. After all these paragraphs of set up, I will now give you my analysis of what happened.
In April of 2022 Mariupol had all but fallen, with the last defenders stubbornly holding on to the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works factory. (A tale of heroes for another time). However, a large push west to take Odessa had been repulsed. If Odessa fell, Russia would have both key ports. There are many reports and indications that Russia might attempt an amphibious assault on Odessa. United States tactical experts believed such an operation would have been a disaster for Russia, but Ukraine was not taking any chances. Under cover of darkness, they moved two launchers through the city and fired one missile each from two different locations. The launches would look like an anti-aircraft response to a city being targeted by cruise missiles. The Moskva was on a probing patrol, and the mind of the crew would have been focused on making sure they could get into position to launch missiles on Odessa during an amphibious invasion. Otherwise, the cruiser had no business coming within 80nm of the city. If the crew of the Moskva detected TB-2 drones in the area, they were probably focused on long range defenses. One Neptune missile struck the port side near the bow, but the other hit the port magazine, igniting ammunition and killing the 17 crewmembers.
Three years later Russia’s Black Sea fleet is in shambles. What remains of it has retreated to eastern Crimea, and now they do battle with Ukrainian drone boats with speed boats armed with grenade launchers. In the coming weeks, I will be looking at the effectiveness of the Ukrainian Magura naval drone and the Tolka TLK150 Submarine drone. For Ukrainian innovative weapons design continues to keep their enemy on the back foot.
Works Cited
"Russian warship Moskva on fire but afloat, Pentagon says". The Guardian. 14 April 2022. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
Hambling, David (14 April 2022). "Ukraine's Bayraktar Drone Helped Sink Russian Flagship Moskva". Forbes. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
Whatever Happened to the Ghost of Kyiv? (Part 5) Moonfish and the Legacy of the Ukrainian Viper Pilot
Lt. Col Olemski Mes in California before flying the F-15
While writing the legend of the Ghost of Kyiv, I had to imagine how a single Mig-29 would have any chance of taking down more advanced fighters with only semi-active radar missiles and a radar with a worse detection range than a disabled bat with no sonar ability. My solution was to pretend the Ukrainians had some sort of primitive datalink which could be programmed onto an iPad or some cheap device. If you are not familiar with a datalink, think of a sort of encrypted internet for the sky, with agreed upon symbols to track the location of both friendly and enemy aircraft.
The United States Military uses a datalink called LINK-16 (Often called JTIDS in some circles). For the longest time, the Navy was the oddball, using a much older datalink called LINK 11. Nowadays the Navy uses LINK 22 – a more secure link designed for maritime operations. I digress. Why am I giving an info-dump on tactical data links when this is supposed to be the final entry of my Ghost of Kyiv series?
Ukraine has command and control deconfliction issues. In the first few days of the war, one of the nation’s best pilots Oleksandr “Grey Wolf” Oksanchenko was shot down in his SU-27 over Kyiv by friendly fire. Therefore, explaining this problem to someone in the Ukrainian Air Force would be like telling them water is wet. Yet you, my meager audience of readers, need to understand the challenges of integrating an Air Force with Soviet and NATO technology, and then trying to fight a war at less than 2000 feet with fighter aircraft. It might have cost one Ukraine’s best pilots his life. If Ukraine had Link 16, Oleksiy Mes might still be with us.
Lilia Averyanova accepts a flag in memoriam of her son Andrii
I would like to help you get to know Moonfish a little better like I did for Juice and Major Tarabalka, but there isn’t a lot out there on this fine young pilot unless you pair him with Juice. I hope to change this with an interaction with a new source someday soon. I would like to tell you how he got his callsign, but asking a pilot that question is a bit like asking a woman her age. You just don’t do it. What I can tell you is that Moonfish loved to fly like all the others, and that he had reached the rank of Lt. Colonel at only the age of 30. He grew up in Shepetivka, Ukraine. This town is West of Kyiv, and has a rich history. In addition to the usual nations trying to claim ownership of Ukraine, this area has also periodically been part of Poland. And then while in school the young Oleksiy Mes became fast friends with one Andrii Pishchykov. That’s right. Juice and Moonfish were brothers and wingmen from the very start.
Because they were so close, a few tidbits about Moonfish actually come from Andrii’s mother, Lilia Averyanova. She describes Oleksiy as the responsible eldest sibling of a large family, and the hard working grandson of a beekeeper. The “salt of the earth”.
When Juice went down in training, Moonfish never had time to manage his grief. In addition to flying and fighting in the first few days of the war, they had been successful ambassadors for bringing the F-16 to Ukraine. They had faced politicians wary of Putin’s nuclear threats and the growing distrust of a public being fed misinformation and Russian propaganda. The day before Moonfish took off an did not return, he sent a letter to his dear friend’s mother, writing:
"I was very lucky to be friends with Andriy. It is hard to remember this day, a year ago we all lost a lot. I hope he is looking at us and is proud of what we are doing. I hope we are not letting him down. I still miss having him around to talk to and get advice. May he rest in peace. Our sincere condolences." (Ivanytska, 2024)
While Juice would never get to drive the Viper, Moonfish had the privilege of becoming one of the first. He completed the training in a little under six months. Because of his crash, some criticize the training for being too fast, but pilots from the Ukraine and the California national guard could attest to his skill.
Lilia, Juice’s mother, sits in the aircraft her son never got to fly for Ukraine.
We should dismiss hostile fire immediately. If Russia had known a Viper had gone down, they would have claimed immediate victory. However, Russian propaganda channels were silent until several days later when controversy erupted. Some Russian media eventually claimed an S-400 guided by an SA-21 Weapons system made the kill, and I have encountered that argument online in a few different fighter pilot blogs. Keep in mind cruise missiles skim the surface at 500 feet or less, and would have been headed toward Ukrainian targets. Moonfish and his wingman would have been chasing at low altitude headed away from Russian radars most of the time. It is possible, but unlikely, that an SA-21 could have targeted Moonfish while he was searching for targets, but his awareness would have been very high in that situation.
While the Ukrainian Air Force was still investigating the cause of the crash, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Maryana Bezuhla, made the following post on Telegram. (Ukrainians tend to use telegram as one of their primary social media sources).
“According to my information, the F-16 piloted by Aleksey ‘Moonfish’ Mes was hit by a Patriot anti-aircraft missile system due to discoordination between units.” (Durden, 2024)
Maryana Bezuhla is a member of Ukraine’s Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and headed the "Reform of the Armed Forces medical supply system" program in the Ministry of Defense. From a very limited amount of research on Wikipedia, she seems to have built her career in the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) around reforming the military and its relationship with the people of Ukraine. Therefore, in my mind, we should take her word as sincere and informed but also coming from a place of general distrust for the military. As I have pointed out earlier in this blog, in Ukraine the military still has quite a bit of Soviet doctrine in place, to the point not even the pilots were willing to remain in the Air Force until their very families were threatened by Russia.
Of course, Russian media pounced on the news implied by her telegram post and triumphantly proclaimed the fratricide as fact. As a result, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk had to respond, presumably also on telegram.
“No one was hiding anything and is not hiding anything!” He wrote. “The entire top management immediately received a report on the crash. Our partners from the United States also received a preliminary report and have already joined the investigation.” (Ivanytska, 2024)
He went on to accuse Bezuhla of playing right into the hands of the Russian propaganda machine, writing “the whole of Russia applauds you.” Within hours of this response, Zelensky fired Oleshchuk from his position and replaced him with Lieutenant General Anatolii Kryvonozhko. And this is where Ukrainian politics gets tricky. Was Zelensky protecting Bezuhla, who is a member of his same political party? Or did he make the move because an F-16 had gone down and he could not afford the distrust of the military Bezuhla might cause? A few facts to consider: First, Zelensky awarded General Oleshchuk “Hero of Ukraine” for his command of the Air Force in the opening days of the invasion. Second, a month after this incident, Parliament unanimously voted to remove Maryana Bezuhla from her position of deputy chair of the National Security Committee. It seems that, unlike in the United States, there are at least some consequences in Ukraine for posting confidential or classified information on social media.
A F-16 “Viper” splashes a drone
Despite all the controversy, there is a real chance Moonfish fell victim to a patriot missile fired by his own nation. A classified investigation would reveal a timeline of all patriots fired and if any could have potentially hit Moonfish’s jet. If they could rule out a patriot based on firing logs, then they would have announced this by now to discredit Russian media. I agree with experts who hypothesize Moonfish fell victim to debris from his own destroyed target. Several Ukrainian pilots, including Karaya have had this misfortune already. Ideally, you want to shoot a cruise missile or drone from a distance above the target, but in their desperation to protect civilians, the Ukrainian aces often have no choice but to pursue co-altitude, especially with Russian SAMS hunting them. I do not have a bad example, but I do have an example of a safe shot from a Mirage 2000. Notice how the pilot makes the shot from well above. This deconflicts the debris. A cruise missile or drone is a slow target and very dangerous to engage head on.
Regardless of what brought him down, fratricide or debris, a proper nationwide command and control network with Link 16 might save the lives of pilots in the future. As of this article, a second F-16 was lost in a similar scenario – chasing cruise missiles. This time, Russia was ready to claim victory. By all accounts, we can assume Captain Pavlo Ivanov was trying to defend Sumy when he went down. A Russian SAM is out of the question, but it is possible an SU-35 might have scored a long-range look-down shoot down shot.
Despite this possibility, given the odds of running into missile or drone debris with no choice but to stay low to engage threats, I think it is clear the biggest threat to a Viper pilot in these engagements is debris and sage angle of attack.
For two years people have been hoping the F-16 would help turn the tide, but what we are seeing is not only are the numbers not favoring the Viper’s capability for Air-to-Air engagement, but its clear command and control is lacking cohesiveness. Ukraine’s meager fleet of Vipers has Link 16. But not their GCI (Grund control intercept), Not their French Mirage 2000s, and not their patriots. This is why it was such a big deal when the Trump administration cut off intelligence from Ukraine. It’s not a bargaining chip like a tariff. It costs lives. Despite this, Ukrainians have been knocking as much as 70 percent of missiles and drones out of the sky.
The Ukrainian version of the missing man salute uses two aircraft in shadow
We need to be all in on Ukraine. We could easily help them be set up with NATOS command and control structure. Ukraine has long accepted foreign warriors into their ranks. They could easily accept foreign fighter pilots, maintainers, and more volunteers to help them set up a command-and-control system which works. In order for them to do so, we would need to be prepare for Russia’s response. They would call them mercenaries. They might even call them actors. Moonfish and Juice would call them heroes, just like the RAF pilots did for the Americans who joined them during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Victory in the air means victory for Ukraine. If we really want to prevent atrocities like Sumy its not going to be by asking Russia to play fair. We need to play unfair and send them everything we can. Moonfish didn’t blink as he shot down three cruise missiles and a drone that day, and we can’t blink when Putin rattles his nuclear saber. We all need to be Ghosts of Kyiv.
Works Cited:
1. Durden, Tyler (30 August 2024). ZeroHedge. Friendly Fire Fiasco: Ukrainian Army Shoots Down Its Own F16 Jet, Pilot Killed | Retrieved 16 April 2025.
2. Ivanytska, Oksana (31 August 2024). HRO Public. 'Lord, anything but Mes'. In memory of Moonfish, fallen F-16 pilot Retrieved 16 April 2025.
Whatever Happened to the Ghost of Kyiv? (Part 4)Karaya Karaya– The Ghost of Vinnytsia
Major Vadym Voroshylov
Unlike the other pilots I have covered as part of the Ghost of Kyiv story, Vadym Voroshylov was not of part of the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade. He flies the Mig-29 with the 204th TAB. This will be a slight inaccuracy with my fictional account of the story, as I enjoy having him be Stepen Tarabalka’s wingman. Karaya represents the pilots in my story who live to continue the fight. He does share the distinction of having earned his nation’s highest honor along with Juice, Moonfish, and so many others. In addition, he is part of the ranks of Ukrainian fighter pilots who left the Air Force in 2021 to protest of unsafe training conditions and a bureaucracy which left pilots underpaid and unable to be with their families and loved ones.
Karaya hails from thetown of Krmenchuck, Poltova Oblast, a port city on the Dnipro River between Kyiv and Karkiv. He graduated from Kremenchuk Military Lyceum, the military academy closest to his home, in 2015. Like Juice, Vadym also then attended military training at the Ivan Kozhedub National University of the Air Force and graduated with honors in 2016 where his Master’s degree in aviation management earned him a slot in the 204th.
One of the catalysts for Vadym, Juice, and other quitting the air force in protest was the crash of Antonov An‑26 aircraft near the airfield of Chuhuiv, killing 26 people on board. The safety report blamed the pilot, but Vadym and his comrades were not buying it. Since most of the souls lost were young cadets, it was the last straw. The Kyiv post covered the story and made Vadym their primary interview as one of the most promising young pilots in the Air Force to resign. (Ponomarenko, 2021).
It is safe to assume that Juice, Moonfish, and Karaya would have all stayed in the Air Force if they thought Russia would invade within a year. It is a testament to the insanity of the invasion, and how a slightly divided Ukraine wrecked by a silent invasion of Russian mercenaries would soon be unified against a threat becoming very real. On 24 February 2022 they all scrambled in the dead of night to make sure their families were safe and then get back to a jet as soon as possible. I am not able to confirm when Karaya was able to take to the sky again, but he flew twenty combat missions between the start of the war and 12 October 2022. (Barsukova, 2022)
Karaya and his wingman patrol the skies over Ukraine.
On the morning of October 12, 2022 Vadym shot down three Shahed drones. In the evening, he went hunting for more. He shot down one Turkish drone without incident. The debris of a second drone proved fatal to the aircraft. Many pilots would have ejected right away, but Vadym knew he was over residential areas. He flew the aircraft for as long as he could before he spotted a “patch of black” and ejected. After escaping the flames, Karaya took a short film of his bloodied face and decent and posted the event to Instagram to let his comrades know he was alright. It has now become something of a famous photo, at least in Ukraine. (Barsukova, 2022)
Karaya letting everyone know he’s just fine.
A young couple took the injured pilot into their home and kept him safe until he could be recovered and transported to a hospital. For his efforts in protecting civilians, and for becoming an ace in one day, Karaya was awarded the Order of the Gold Star. He also earned the title, “The Ghost of Vinnystia” from the people of the town he protected.
At this point I can happily write that Karaya’s fight continues. He is something of a minor celebrity in Ukriane, along with Roman Krybov (the man who told the Russian Warship to go F-itself.). He even starred in a commercial recently for several Ukrainian companies who were working together to send care packages to make sure every Ukrainian warrior gets a care package monthly that they can order through a phone app, and several items are paid for or discounted for them. Karaya is shown getting gas and coffee paid for so he doesn’t have these financial worries during the war.
I’m sure Karaya was glad to help promote the government application, but he is much more excited to be flying the F-16. In 2023 Vadym was featured in an Euromaiden Press article advocating for the F-16 like his predecessors Juice and Moonfish. (Sheridan, 2023). With many interviews like this he is making the case over and over about how with enough modern fighters Ukrainians will own the sky.
Karaya with Colonel Volodymyr Logachov - Former Pilot and Commander of the Ukraine Aviation Department (which likely oversees training, I need to confirm).
Yet social media continues to be one of his best assets. His Instagram indicates that while the 40th TAB might have been the first to fly operational Vipers, the 204th is now training on them and preparing to go operational. He wanted to show his gratitude for the aircraft after Zelensky was accused of not being thankful enough in the notorious meeting and made a special video. I know all of this because he regularly updates the same Instagram account from which he posted his famous photo.
Vadym Voroshylov (@___karaya___) • Instagram photos and videos
Karaya continues to carry the torch of the Ghost of Kyiv, and I pray his experience keep him and the other Ukrainian pilots safe. But they will need our help. Call your congressman and tell them to defy the direction the Trump administration is going. America cannot afford to sit on the sidelines of this conflict. We talk a lot about money being spent, but not equipment. Karaya needs jets and patriot SAM systems with proper Link-16 to prevent frat and shoot down even more cruise missiles. More than that, they need the command and control and the numbers to finally drive the Russian Air Force from the skies. Karaya and the Ghosts have them running scared, but if we remember who we are as Americans and really contribute what Ukraine needs once and for all (not piecemeal), the invaders would fly home and never return.
(The following video is in Ukrainian, but you can set closed captions to English)
У Вінниці пілот «Karaya» розповів, як врятувався з палаючого літака - YouTube
Works Cited:
Barsukova, Olena (10 December 2022). Ukrainska Pravda. Hero and "Ghost of Vinnytsia": what is known about pilot with call sign Karaya Retrieved 7 April 2025.
Ponomarenko, Illia (31 July 2021). Kyiv Post. Jet pilots leave Ukraine’s Air Force en masse, threatening security Retrieved 7 April 2025.
Sheridan, Danielle (2 April 2023). The Telegraph. Russians setting traps to take out Ukrainian fighter jets Retrieved 7 April 2025.
Whatever Happened to the Ghost of Kyiv? (Part 3) Stepan Tarabalka - The Face of the Legend
Stepan Tarabalka in Pilot Training
I have learned the least about Stepan Tarabalka’s military exploits compared to all the other heroes of the 40th TAB. This could change if I find a contact who knew him, but for now not much is known about the young pilot in terms of the media—right wing, left wing, Russian, Ukrainian, he is forever the man journalists thought might be the “Ghost of Kyiv”. This is because his helmet and gloves went on auction in the UK to support the war effort. For a little while, he was credited with 40 kills. Media skeptical of the myth of the ghost immediately (and correctly) scoffed at such a high number. However, most media outlets never seemed to calculate cruise missiles or drones into their kill counts for the Ghost, because the myth was about a romantic notion of air-to-air and pilot-to-pilot victories. I always assumed cruise missiles and drones were part of the story from the start. And, in fact, they are important victory count for every Ukrainian ace. They are part of a new type of war. Drone on drone dogfights are now a regular engagement.
We cannot confirm much about Tarabalka as a pilot. We don’t even know his call sign. We do know the date and area of when he was shot down and did not return, and we are told it was a dangerous and risky mission from the get-go. This might account for the continued secrecy regarding his fate. I hate to think his death to be yet another fratricide, but it is possible considering the Ukrainian Air Force would rather have not been forced to admit that the Grey Wolf and Moonfish were also victims of friendly fire. Those admissions only came on the heels of some savvy journalism.
And yet, someone wanted Stepan’s memory honored enough to call him the ghost. Someone thought him worthy enough to donate his personal effects to auction with the title. And it worked, at least until the 40 kills exaggeration forced the Ukrainian Air Force to declare the Ghost a myth. However, because of his time carrying the moniker of the Ghost, we know a bit more about Tarabalka’s family and personal life at this point in 2025 than many of the brave Ukrainian pilots who will never return from the sky. In this regard we can imagine his family as a sort of look into the family life of every pilot who battles in the skies over Ukraine.
Stepan Tarabalka was born in the small village of Korolivka near Kolomyia in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Kolomyia has an Air base, and here the young Stepan would be inspired to become a pilot. For a kid from a working-class family, like Stepan, becoming a pilot was a dream that was probably out of reach. It would be like a middle school kid wanting to become an NFL football player. When Stepan was young, pilots still came from Soviet aristocratic families. In later years, Natalia and Ivan spent a lot of time working in Portugal, where they could earn a lot more money than at home in Ukraine. And yet Stepan reached his goals, with his effort and the prayers of his mother.
Stepan’s Parents
Stepan’s mother also revealed in her interview with Eric Westervelt of NPR on 25 March, 2022, that after Stepan completed flight training he would often buzz the small villages of his hometown with a Mig-29 flyby and a wing-rock salute. (Westevelt, 2022) This interview can still be listened to at the link in my works cited. . Maybe his callsign was “trumpet” or “fanfare”. Maybe it was something in Ukrainian that doesn’t translate. In my noveliztion of the Ghost of Kyiv, I call him “Deviant” because I imagine he had to break protocol or flight restrictions to fly over the villages, even if he was scheduled for transitions at Kolomia Air base. After all, he was known for putting on a little air show.
Cadet Stepan Tarabalka
It wasn’t long after completing a pilot training that Stepan found himself flying in a war, conducting bombing missions against Putin’s quite mercenary invasion of the Donbas. I like to think he went to war with a callsign that reminded people how he grew up with a love of music, and could play the trumpet. He served with the 40th TAB during the war years Americans tend to know far too little about. So, whatever the mission was that he did not survive, it no doubt required the expertise of a veteran to fly low and hug the terrain. In those early days of the war, Russian surface to air threats were everywhere inside Ukraine.
Stepan was shot down over the Zhytomyr Oblast. During the first weeks of March, the Zhytomyr highway became one of many notorious “Highways of Death” where Russian troops (or orcs as the Ukranians call them) deliberately targeted civilians. They had already killed dozens. On 13 March, as Stepan took to the air, a local police officer named Andriy Ziniak was shot in the back and killed. (Martyniuk, 2023). I imagine Stepan was asked to be the point distraction fighter so SU-25s could attack Russian armor along the highway, or perhaps attack the large 40 mile traffic jam of Russian military vehicles headed for Kyiv. He is said to have been outnumbered in a dogfight, which was always the case in those days. Its not hard to imagine yet another nobel sacrifice so more of his brothers could live, as Stepan was awarded the order of the gold star. He was laid to rest in a closed casket funeral. He is survived by his sister, Julia, his wife Olena, and a son who would now be eleven named Yarik.
I like to think one day Yarik will take to the sky like his father. Only in a brand new F-35 over the skies of a free Ukraine, flying wingtip formation with a Ghost of Kyiv.
Stepan and Wife Olena
Works Cited
Westervelt, Eric (25 March 2022). One Ukrainian family grieves the loss of their fighter pilot son. NPR. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
Martniuk, Yevheniia (10 April 2023. Ukraine’s death highway: How Russian troops executed dozens of civilians near Kyiv. Euromaiden. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
Whatever Happened to the Ghost of Kyiv? (Part 2)The Ballad of the Vyacheslavs (Yerko and Rodionov)
A “Ghost” prepares to fly a Mirage 2000. Note the Paint Job.
When I began this Ukraine blog, I mentioned three pilots as critical to the story of the Ghost of Kyiv. Research has shown me there are so many more than three. When I completed my novella on the Ghost a year and a half ago, much of the information I have now did not exist. Each year, more information will come. By the time Ukraine has finally won this conflict, I hope Americans are the ones who express the gratitude that has been missing. Make no mistake, this conflict with Russia is as much our war as Ukraine’s. Never before has a battle been fought on such a scale by someone else on behalf of the people of the United States. When the war started on 24 February, 2024, I think everyone intuitively knew this. At this point, we have a lot of casualties to both Russian propaganda, and right wing media propaganda which creates a disillusionment of the place of leadership the Untied States has in the world.
I want to take people back to that first day of the war. Russia attempted an unprovoked surprise attack. They built up their forces claiming a training exercise. To be clear, nobody bought that excuse, but most intelligence agency talk was that this was all political posturing so that Putin could make certain demands and then withdrawal. Therefore, it was somewhat of a surprise for pilots like Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Yerko and others that they needed to scramble for their jets and retrograde to reserve bases scattered around west Ukraine.
The Russians target each Ukrainian Airbase with 30 missiles, for a total of 155. Vasylkiv Airbase sits about 40 km south of Kyiv, and its here the story of the Ghost truly begins—not with victory, but with sacrifice. In that initial attack, most aircraft that took off were unarmed. The Russian pilots had no way of knowing this, but if they discovered the retrograding aircraft had no teeth, the Ukrainians might be hunted down. 25-year-old fighter pilot Vyacheslav Rodionov covered his brothers from the air. He took off in his plane and diverted the enemy’s attention by heading for them in an attack azimuth while his squadron mates dispersed. The act cost him his life, and he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Gold Star (Ukrainian Medal of Honor). The 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade credit him with saving the entire brigade. (Rop, June 2023)
Vyacheslav Rodionov
Once the brigade refueled at their reserve bases and rearmed, they reentered the fray against the Russians. The pilots of the Russian Air Force had been told they already had air superiority, so when they encountered resistance, they fled. As an entire wave of Russian Aircraft retreated north to Belarus, it gave “Juice” Pilshchykov the idea to prey further on the fears of Russian pilots, and concoct the story of the Ghost of Kyiv. (See Part One Here: Andrii Pilshchykov - The Original Ghost. (Part 1) — Travis Hightower ).
Even though Juice wanted to use a legend as a weapon against the Russians, the story of an ace Ukrainian pilot taking down several advanced aircraft had a kernel of truth to it. Despite the social media debate over the meme, Russian pilots knew that Ukrainian Migs had terrorized their forces over Hostemel Airport just 25 kilometers north of Vasylkiv Air Base.
After the initial missile strikes, Russia sent a 700-man force riding in 24 Mil Mi-8 transport helicopters escorted by 10 attack helicopters. (A mixture of Mi-24 and Kamov Ka-52 gunships.) With the Russian escort fighters in retreat in the face of unexpected resistance, five Mig-29s of the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade sliced through the formation and shot down 4 of the 34 helicopters. Lt. Colonel Yerko is credited with two of the confirmed Mi-24 kills.
Over the next 24 hours, a fierce battle raged in the sky. The Russian fighter pilots accepted they still had an enemy to fight, and the scrappy Ukrainians managed to close distance and engaged them at close range. They needed to nullify the long-range advantage of the Russian active radar missiles, and for the most part succeeded in making it to the merge with the Russians. The “Merge” is when long beyond-visual-range missile shots are no longer an option, and a more traditional turning dogfight popularized by Hollywood movies begins.
The only problem—the Ukrainians pilots are usually outnumbered by at least five to one in these engagements, and the Mig-29 does not hold much gas. This meant a tight rotation of two Ukrainian fighters against up to twenty Russians at a time, with most engagements ending in a Ukrainian retreat until the next pilots could join the fray.
In this savage environment, Yerko and the pilots of the 40th prevented any more reinforcements or aid from reaching the Hostemel Airport, and the Russians were forced to retreat. They had lost their quick-deploy field for laying siege to Kyiv, and would have to do it the hard way. And we all know how well that went. Yerko downed an SU-25 attack aircraft trying to provide close air support to Russian troops, and then the Russians finally outflanked him. It is unclear what type of fighters brought him down, but several sources report he was able to eject safely. Despite this, the Russians shot him in his parachute on the way down, most likely coming from ground fire at the airport. (Axe, December 2022)
The Ukrainian Air Force also credits Yerko with downing an SU-35. Since this kill is unconfirmed, I think it is a good bet Yerko was in a two versus one with SU-35s. At close range, he may have been able to pull it off, but it is also just as likely a Ukrainian SAM managed the SU-35 kill. Still, its clear Yerkos experience made him an ace, even if his true numbers did not.
I don’t have much on Yerko for a biography beyond this ballad, but he leaves behind a wife and two daughters and is yet another recipient of the honor “Hero Of Ukraine”. More importantly, he and Vyacheslav Rodionov are part of the true legacy of the Ghost of Kyiv and freedom for us all.
Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Yerko
Works Cited
Rop, Natalia (21 June 2023). The story of several dozen pilots who protected the skies of the capital in the first days of the full-scale war - NV reconstruction. The New Voice of Ukraine, Retrieved 24 March 2025.
Axe, David (9 December 2022) . Five Brave Ukrainian MiG Pilots Blunted the Russian Attack On Kyiv On Day One Of The War. Not All Of Them Survived. Forbes. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
Aviation Safety Network Archive of References Submitted by Users, Retrieved 24 March 2025
Andrii Pilshchykov - The Original Ghost. (Part 3) Bringing the Viper to the War
Zelensky Thanks the United States in a very grateful way for their F-16s.
"If you cannot shut the sky now, then give a timeline when you will do it. If you cannot provide a timeline, tell us how many people have to die? Tell me how many. I'll go to count and wait for the moment. I hope the sky will be shut down. If you don't have strength and courage to do that, then give me the planes.” ~Volodymyr Zelensky 3 March 2022 (Basu, 2022)
When Zelensky asked for us to close the sky, we could have. It would have meant calling an incredible bluff. It would have looked foolhardy to anyone who didn’t know better, and its hard to be transparent enough without giving away classified information as to why we could ignore Putin’s nuclear saber rattling. In truth starting a no-fly zone would have placed the ball in the Russian’s court. If they were to engage us as we patrolled the sky, the war to follow would be their fault. The same situation occurred during the Cuban missile crisis with ships, only we were much closer to home.
When the Russians gave up their attack on Kyiv, the United States and NATO had another opportunity to close the sky, in the interest of protecting Ukrainian civilians. But our approach was conservative. So, what about giving Ukraine the planes? This seems like a reasonable request considering From September 28, 2022, to September 1, 2024, Russia launched a total of 11,466 missiles. On average, 23.2 missiles were launched daily at mostly civilian targets and infrastructure. As it turns out, western Republics were squeamish on getting Ukraine the aircraft they would need to turn the tide.
Juice and his wingman Olenskii “Moonfish” Mes would be instrumental in giving the United States and NATO the courage to move forward with arming the Ukrainian Air Force with the HARM Missile, the F-16, and the Mirage 2000. It all started with the two pilots taking a trip to the United States in June, 2022.
I’m trying to learn the circumstances of how their invitation came about. I suspect members of the 144th fighter wing of the California National guard might have had something to do with it. Whatever the case may be, Juice and Moonfish made their way to Washington DC and met with Senator Lindsey Grahm, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and many others.
Before the visit, Grahm remarked that getting F-16s to Ukraine would be a “tough sell”. Juice and Moonfish were introduced in a session of congress. Kinzinger also introduced a bill called the “Ukrainian Fighter Pilots Act.” Their role was to convince the lawmakers that Ukrainian pilots could quickly train on and master the F-16. These were two pilots who had already flown exercise missions on the F-15. By the time they had finished their rounds in congress and completed several interviews with major American news networks, there were few who still doubted the pilots. The Bill passed, and all that remained was to convince the Biden Administration. Would the F-16 enter the fray soon enough to turn the tide in the air?
“I believe that more than any other person out there, “Juice” is responsible for the F-16s coming to Ukraine. He did countless, tireless interviews with western media, pleading for modern jets, and when that wasn’t enough, he traveled across the ocean to look the American Senators in the eyes and to tell them that Ukrainian pilots can fly anything. And the Senators believed. Now, the jets are coming and when the first F-16 crosses the Ukrainian sky, Juice will be there,” said Adam Makos, an American writer and military historian.
As effective as this first trip was, it took another year before a plan went in motion to get Ukraine the F-16. On 11 July 2023, an international coalition of eleven European nations was formed during the NATO Vilnius summit to train pilots, technicians, and maintenance support for the F-16. Greece joined the coalition a month later on 22 August. Almost reluctantly, the United States finally joined on 24 August.
By 2023 Russian propaganda was rampant in the US. Tucker Carlson left Fox news in April of 2023 and by July 2023 Twitter had become X, catering to misinformation more than ever before. In August 2023, the same month the F-16 was finally under commitment from the United States, Tucker Carlson interviewed the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. And my family listened. Not only did they listen, they called me “one sided” for not wanting to listen to a smart version of Trump and a Propogandist. And so . . . I forced myself to watch the interview. There were forces hard at work to slowly drill into the mind of the average US citizen that the war was Ukraine’s fault. What hurt is that people trusted this farce of an interview over someone like me, who lived bathed in the truth of the matter both on a classified and unclassified level. As a result, I understand what a huge victory it was for Ukraine to get the “Viper”.
Tragedy struck before Andrii Pilshchykov would ever see the fruits of his hard ambassador work. As mentioned in part 1, Juice and two other pilots (Major Viacheslav Minka and Major Serhii Prokazin ) when their two L-39M1 trainer planes died in a mid-ai collision during dogfight training with L-39M1 aircraft on the evening of 25 August 2023. Zelensky offered remarks the next day. It would be a almost a full year before Ukraine would get their first F-16s.
After his long-time dear friend and wingman was laid to rest, Moonfish had this to say as he took up the mantle of leader for advocacy of the F-16.
"Andriy was the 'ideas man' and the main driving force behind it all. And I feel responsible to him for ensuring these planes arrive." (Tatasova-Markina and Kottasova, August 2024)
At long last, on 5 August 2024, the first Ukrainian F-16s went operational. Six of them. On 26 August, Russia launched its most massive missile and drone attack yet. The F-16s moved to intercept, helping to shoot down 102 of 127 missiles and 99 of 109 drones. The Vipers most likely closed on their targets and used the AIM-9 Sidewinder to take down the aging cruise missiles and fat Turkish drones, saving their stockpile of AIM-120B AAMRAM Radar Missiles for more difficult fights to come against the Russian Air Force.
Two Days later, Russia fired again. This time, Moonfish was sent to chase down the enemy, and did not return. His aircraft crashed after taking down three missiles and a drone. This brought his total kills in the F-16 to 7 missiles and a drone. Another ace pilot, and another hero, was gone.
For now, Ukraine needs to be cautious with less than a dozen F-16s. They were supposed to have around 30 to 35 by now, But Belgium delayed its delivery because the United States Delayed the delivery of F-35s we sold to the country. That’s the official story. Unofficially, the United States cannot be trusted to hold up its side of the bargain on any arms deal, especially to a European NATO country. And that is the fight we need to win here at home, for ourselves as much as Ukraine.
Until then, Juice and Moonfish will be waiting, patrolling the skies over Ukraine as Ghosts of Kyiv.
Works Cited
Basu, Zachary (3 March 2022). "Zelensky: If West won't impose no-fly zone, "give me the planes"". Axios. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
B., Volodymyr. "Born for the sky: Andrii "Juice" Pilshchykov obituary". Militarnyi. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
Daria Tarasova-Markina and Ivana Kottasová (29 August 2024) Ukraine says US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed, killing a Top Pilot, ABC Eyewitness News Retrieved 18 March 2025/
Andrii Pilshchykov - The Original Ghost. (Part 2)
The Unprovoked Russian Invasion, 24 February 2022 – 5:30am
It starts out as a dream. A distant whistle. A rolling thunder. Andrii is caught in a storm, but he stands in the eye of a hurricane. Jets and missiles whirl around him until, BOOM! His entire apartment shudders. The sound of the howling wind is actually an air raid siren. His base is under attack! Vasylkiv Air Base is 20 miles southwest of Kyiv. Missiles landing here could only mean one thing—Russia had launched a full-scale invasion.
On his way out of the Air Force, he had agreed to rally the wives of those who would be taking to the air soon in a mad scramble to protect the nation. Some would never return. We will tell all their stories in future entries, reader. One of the wives contacted was almost certainly Elena Tarabalka. After an emotional exchange with several wives, Andrii grabbed his military issue rifle and headed for base. He desperately, wanted to get into the air, but the Ukrainian Airforce was executing a retrograde plan which would see several pilots engage the Russians without weapons to buy the rest of the force time. Andrii explains his role in those first days.
“Actually, for the first few days, there were no cockpits for me, we had no free jets for me on the base, because they were on another airfield,” he explained. “So, my mission was to provide ground defense for my squadron, with some special [operations forces] guys, to help them, because I know this place better than they do.” (Newdick, 2022)
The first days of fighting were ferocious, especially in the battle for Hostomel Airfield as airborne Russian troops tried to seize the strategic location. With the members of the 40th Tactical Aviation brigade claiming kills against two Il-76 transports used to deliver airborne troops, four Mi-24 helicopters, A SU-25 ground attack aircraft, and possibly even one fancy new SU-35. (No visual confirmation of the latter). The Ukrainian Air Force credits an ace pilot named Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Yerko for two of the helicopters and the two [fixed wing aircraft. Yerko was shot down over the airfield. Ukrainian sources report the Russians shot him as his parachute floated down. The media has to be objective about this, as it is hearsay. I am careful when kill counts for the Ukrainian side seem high, and I wonder if one pilot managed four kills on the 24th. But if the Ukraine military tells me a pilot was executed after ejecting, based on the track record of the Russians in this war, I believe them. (Axe, 2022)
The exploits of Lt. Col Yerko, also make me wonder if this is who Juice was referring to when asked about the “Ghost of Kyiv.”
“There are a lot of versions (Of the Ghost of Kyiv) now on the internet,” he admitted, “but the first stuff [reported] about him is actually the truth. Of course, some fiction has since been added. But actually, he’s from my home base, my unit … I couldn’t tell you all the details now, but I think after the victory you will know everything about him.” (Newdick, 2022)
Perhaps Yerko’s victories made Juice feel more than justified in starting his own propaganda campaign. However the legend would travel from Yerko to other pilots. Five weeks into the conflict, and two more pilots of the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade had gone down. One of these was Major Stepan Tarabalka. Ukraine was able to recover his helmet and flight gloves, and when these items were labeled as belonging to the “Ghost of Kyiv” at an auction supporting the war effort in the UK, international media ran full sprint with the story. The Legend became so bloated that the Ghost (Tarabalka at the time) now had more than forty kills. It was at this point the Ukrainian Defense page was forced to declare the Ghost a “Super hero Legend.”
Meanwhile the war raged on. The Mig-29s of the 40th provided top cover as Ukrainian SU-25 attack aircraft tried to harass the Russian lines – in particular that long traffic jam outside of Kyiv. It was here that the Air war became “Cat and mouse” with neither side really wanting to risk a full on missile engagement without the advantage. Juice describes the patrols.
“I am patrolling in the area and trying to find something, ‘free hunting,’ or sometimes it’s like pushing the enemy from your area. If they have us on their screen, especially if we have a few guys patrolling the area, they don’t want to get into trouble. So, we can push them from the area.
Once Russia gave up on its assault on Kyiv in late March, the 40th turned the attention of its Migs to downing the larger, higher flying Turkish drones. They had tried attacking drones and cruise missiles before, with limited success, but it soon became the primary mission.
The exact kill count for Juice against drones is unlisted, but he flew over 100 combat flights, with amny of them being air to ground missions against Russian command posts. Notably, he and his wingman Vladyslav “Nomad” Savieliev were the first to fire and destroy Russian Surface to Air Missile Radar with the HARM missile attached to their Migs on 2 June 2023.
As a Ghost, Andrii Pilshchykov was lethal. But as an Ambassador advocating for the F-16, he and fellow pilot Oleksii “Moonfish” Mes accomplished an even more important mission.
A mission, now put in jeopardy, by Donald Trump. We tell the story of Juice, Moonfish, and the Ukrainian F-16 in the next entry.
Works Cited:
Newdick Thomas., Ukrainian MiG-29 Pilot’s Front-Line Account Of The Air War Against Russia, TWZ, 2 April 2022
Axe David, Five Brave Ukrainian MiG Pilots Blunted the Russian Attack On Kyiv On Day One Of The War. Not All Of Them Survived, Forbes, 9 December 2022
Andrii Pilshchykov - The Original Ghost. (Part 1)
The Ghost of Kyiv was the brainchild of Andrii Pilshchykov. He was the first to push for the legend to be spread after an engagement with the Russian Air Force in the first week of the unprovoked invasion. The engagement was like many at the time, with only four Ukrainian aircraft flying head-to-head with twelve to twenty Russian Aircraft. As soon as the Ukrainians fired their first missile, the Russian Aircraft turned and fled. Andrii would later explain this phenomenon to his mentor and pilot trainer “Stalker” from the civil air patrol.
“[They away run away] because it’s all Russian bravado: they are used to flying and bombing Syria, where there is no opposition to them.”(Militarnyi, August 2023).
Not only were the Russian fighter pilots cowards to Pilshchykov, but their Air Force did nothing but lie. After the first few hours of the war, the Russia Military declared air supremacy, which implied the complete destruction of the Ukrainian Air Force. Not only was this not true, but Ukraine was managing to hold the sky in many cases and deny Russian attacks. The Ghost of Kyiv was a way of letting the world know the Ukrainian Air Force was still in the fight, and that the Russian military had lied. “Stalker” recounted what Andrii told him about the Ukrainian Military’s decision to move forward with the Ghost of Kyiv propaganda campaign. (Stalker’s full name is protected in August 2023 obituary I am referencing).
“The commanders approved the idea of trolling the Russians, who said they had destroyed all [Ukrainian] aviation on the first day of the war. And Andrii, who had such a caustic trolling style, said: “And here we are on the very planes that they destroyed, which are not there – we are fighting them so much. And who are we? Ghosts!” (Militarnyi, August 2023).
Some of my reader may be familiar with the photo below. At the time, the pilot was a mysterious figure. The former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko shared this photo as the “Ghost of Kyiv”. At one time, it was even incorrectly labeled as Stepan Tarabalka. The photo is actually of Major Pilshchykov in 2019 wearing a French helmet.
Andrii “Juice” Pilshchykov became the famous face of the “Ghost of Kyiv”
You read correctly. Sadly, these quotes are referenced from an obituary. “Juice” was killed during a mid-air collision in August 2023 while trying to train new Ukrainian fighter pilots in low-level dog fight training in the airspace near Sinhury, Ukraine. Fighter pilot training is already dangerous, but trying to accomplish it during a war increases the risk. However, the story of Andrii Pilshchykov does not end here.
“Juice”
Andrii Pilshchykov was born 3 February 1993 in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. He grew up infatuated with aviation, and when he was a teenager, ran a blog where he would traveled round the Kharkiv region taking pictures of any aircraft he could find. He entered the civil air patrol and first learned to fly on a Kh-32-912 Bekas aircraft with a pilot from the Civil Air Patrol NGO. (Presumably “Stalker”).
In order to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot, Andrii had to get corrective eye surgery, and after doing so was admitted as a student to the Ivan Kozhedub National Air Force University. His admission to the university is a product of cultural freedom. The University is named in honor of a Ukrainian and Soviet Pilot. It was one of two Soviet Air Force Academies. In those days, pilots came exclusively from aristocratic families. It was a high-class job to become a fighter pilot. It remained that way for a while after the Soviet Union crumbled, but Andrii is from a generation of pilots where every citizen had the opportunity.
While a cadet at the Academy, Andrii was able to visit Operation Clear Skies in 2011. Clear Skies is a large force exercise conducted between Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Britain, and the United States. It has a long tradition. The last such exercise was in 2018, and it is an important event in the story of the Ghost of Kyiv. In 2011, Andrii first lay eyes on an F-16, and snapped this photo for his blog. I can only imagine what he felt when he later got to sit in one in Norway in 2014. I can hear him making the jet a promise to fly one someday.
The closest thing Ukraine had to such a fine aircraft was the Mig-29, and on April 19, 2016, Andrii made his first solo flight in a “Fulcrum” (NATO Designation for the Mig-29). The winter of the same year, he graduated the academy and was assigned to the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade at Vasilkiv Air Force Base. Here he would train and fly side by side with Stepan Tarabalka, Vadym Voroshylov, and many other skilled Mig-29 pilots.
Ukrainian Mig-29s
Life in in 40th was a constant generational struggle for these young pilots. They were being taught and trained by westerners, but the old guard still preferred Soviet Tactics, bureaucracy, and command style. It rested on their shoulders to move the Ukrainian Air Force forward as the shadow of Putin to the east grew stronger and civil war raged in the Donabas. And they did so in 2018 at Operation Clear Skies once more, this time with the 144th Fighter Wing of the California National Guard involved. A close relationship between the 144th and the members of the 40th Tactical fighter wing formed, and this relationship would become essential to training Ukrainian pilots in American Aircraft.
Andrii and several other pilots were invited after Clear Skies to travel to California and fly the F-15 Eagle. It was here Andrii was introduced to the best of American culture. As the story goes, they stopped at a pizzeria in their flight suits for lunch between flights. An American veteran paid the bill of the active-duty service members, to include the Ukrainians, thanking them for their service. Likewise, when police officers entered the establishment, the active-duty pilots covered their bill. This comradery stuck with Andrri, because military members of the old generation never treated the younger ones with that amount of gratitude in Ukraine. He resolved to emulate this kind of respect when he returned home and do everything he could to make sure his fellow warriors were treated the same way.
And then the Americans gave Andrii his callsign. The young Ukrainian pilot did not believe in drinking alcohol due to his religious faith, and whenever he would join the Americans at the bar, he would order juice. Out of respect for this, a name was born. As he returned home, the days raced on toward history and war, but Ukraine faced corruption issues. Pilots at home were training on dangerous, undermaintained equipment. The situation of neglect within the Ukrainian Air Force became so bad that many pilots began to resign in protest, or thinking of their own safety. In 2021, Andrii resigned his commission, giving a list of reasons. I used an AI program to translate the following image. Since it is a list of fragmented sentences, I turned them into more complete thoughts.
Andrii’s list of reasons for leaving the Ukrainian Air Force
1. The state has insufficient controllability and passive power of activity. This leads to the inability of Air Force Institutions to address modern realities.
2. Registration in the organization, or freedom of activity, does not correspond to life skills.
3. Insufficient maturity of the pilot killed in training during last year's exercises. The unit is responsible.
4. Poor Organization in the security system of Lviv.
5. Taking into account these acts and preventing working with allies (like Poland and Romania).
6. Insufficient modernization. Lack of joint leaders to strengthen the national plan.
7. Strengthen the permanent policy for the implementation of tasks for the implementation of NATO standards. Now and in the future.
8. Take into account and coordinate, if necessary, the insufficiency of joint leaders of forces and means.
9. Insufficient state of all types of provisions
10. Existing military labor regimes and influences due to the shortcomings of security scenarios of activity, as well as the predominance of the implementation of (unreadable).
11. Insufficient social protection of the young staff and their families.
12. Incomplete choice and low quality of education according to experienced instructors, lack of competence.
13. Inconsistency of leaders of the policy of this generation, which, having transferred the message to others, in plans for this choice for the future.
14. Wishes for more leave time (It think), not related to people's work.
Ukrainian pilots had a frustrating lack of an ability to have a proper family life, facing unsafe training conditions, and a general unwillingness to move forward. Some of this is due to old Soviet ties, but others seems to be the fear of being perceived as joining NATO. A fear which ultimately goes out the window when Russia invades you anyway. It is unknown whether the Air Force would have changed, and Andrii returned to the career he loved, but Putin would one day force his hand. We will save that story, for the next entry.
Works Cited:
Volodymyr B., Born for the sky: Andrii “Juice” Pilshchykov Obituary, Militarnyi, August 2023