A 46-year-old Ukrainian pilot was killed after his MiG-29 fighter jet crashed while landing after returning from a combat mission, Ukraine’s Air Force has reported. MiG-29 pilot Serhiy Bondar, who was killed on the night of 23 August 2025, was part of the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade, also known as “The Ghost of Kyiv”.
The incident occurred during the night of August 22–23, the authorities said.
“On the night of August 23, 2025, after completing a combat mission during an approach to landing, the pilot of the MiG-29 fighter aircraft, Major Serhii Bondar, born in 1979, was killed,” the Ukrainian Air Force wrote on Telegram.
The exact location of the crash has not been disclosed and a special commission has been tasked with investigating the cause of the tragedy.
This is the third Ukrainian military aircraft lost in the past two months. On June 29, an F-16 fighter went down after being damaged while repelling a Russian attack, killing the pilot.
In July, a Ukrainian Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter crashed, but the pilot ejected safely and there were no casualties on the ground.
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