The Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine conducted an official investigation and preliminarily established that the cause of the MiG-29 fighter crash in the Odesa region (which occurred in August) could have been an abnormal operation of a guided missile.
This was reported by the press service of the State Bureau of Investigation.
This version is also being checked within the framework of the criminal case and expert examinations will be conducted, which will be assigned by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
In particular, the investigation will check the fighter jetʼs black box. Only then will law enforcement officers finally determine the cause of the crash.
A MiG-29 fighter jet caught fire on August 10 while neutralizing drones in the Odesa region. The pilot lost control, but managed to eject.
SBI has launched an investigation into the fact of a violation of flight rules or preparation for them, as well as the rules for operating aircraft, which caused the disaster.
Air Force losses
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 was killed, and two pilots also 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.
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 a 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.
On June 16, 2026, a Su-24M front-line bomber crashed in Khmelnytskyi region, killing the pilot and navigator. On July 29, an F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Poltava region, the pilot survived.
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