The Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter. This is stated in a report by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Overall, during the 2026 summer campaign, the formations of the Kyiv regime have lost several combat aircraft of various types, including those supplied by NATO countries.
On 16 June, in the sky over Khmelnytskyi Oblast, a Su-24M bomber that was making its second sortie of the day, with 55-year-old Major Bohdan Zahorulko and 23-year-old Senior Lieutenant Bohdan Babenko on board, crashed to the ground from an altitude of 600 metres. The pilots did not manage to eject and were killed. From the very beginning it was written that they had collided with a bird. This version is also held by the commission that conducted the investigation; however, experts do not rule out other causes, including combat-related ones.
According to various data, Ukraine currently operates between 5 and 10 Su-24M and Su-24MR aircraft. The latter are a reconnaissance version, but due to an acute shortage of equipment they have also been converted into carriers of Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG cruise missiles. Therefore, the loss of every “twenty-fourth” is irreplaceable for the enemy.
On 27 June, after a night sortie, a MiG-29MU1 with tail number 93, assigned to the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade, did not return from its mission. It was reported that it was hit by an R-37 missile launched by a Su-35. The pilot managed to leave the damaged aircraft.
In addition, “Geran-4 Seeker” drones burned a “twenty-ninth” on the territory of the Voznesensk airfield (Mykolaiv Oblast), as well as another couple of MiG-29s with munitions suspended under the wings.
On 29 July an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter was lost. It was being used to intercept one of our unmanned aerial vehicles, but it was the American-made fighter that was destroyed. The pilot ejected and ended up in a medical facility. The nature of his injuries or wounds was not reported; it is possible that he sustained them while still in the air.
On the evening of 10 August in Odesa Oblast, again during a sortie to counter UAVs, a MiG-29 was destroyed. The pilot flying it managed to escape. The official version of the enemy is an abnormal situation with an air-to-air missile, but the most probable one is that the aircraft became another victim of a “Geran”.
On 18 August the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported the destruction of yet another MiG-29.
