Su-24M bomber crashes in the Khmelnytskyi region. A pilot and a navigator are dead

A front-line Su-24M bomber crashed in the Khmelnytskyi region at around 7 PM, killing the pilot and navigator.

This was reported by the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Air Force also named the deceased: Major Bohdan Zahorulko and Senior Lieutenant Bohdan Babenko. They were performing a combat mission at the time of the plane crash.

The front-line bomber belonged to the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian named after Petro Franko. The cause and circumstances of the plane crash are being investigated.

Rescuers and law enforcement officers are working at the scene.

What is known about the losses of the Air Force

Since the start of the full-scale war with Russia, the Ukrainian Air Force has lost several fighter jets and professional pilots. In particular, in August 2023, pilot Andriy "Juice" Pilshchykov and two other pilots died in a plane crash in the Zhytomyr region.

In August 2024, Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes died while repelling a Russian attack. This was the first officially confirmed loss of an F-16 fighter jet by Ukraine.

And in July 2025, a French-made “Mirage-2000” military aircraft crashed in Volyn — the pilot managed to eject in time. This is the first publicly known case of Ukraine losing such a fighter.

After that, several air crashes were reported: on the night of August 23, 2025, the pilot of the MiG-29 fighter Major Serhiy Bondar was killed, and on December 17, the crew of the Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter was killed. Before that, at noon on December 8, 2025, on the eastern front while performing a combat mission on a Su-27 aircraft, Ukrainian pilot Yevhen Ivanov was killed.

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