On Saturday, August 23, 2025, the press service of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Повітряні Сили Збройних Сил України, AFU AF) announced on social media the loss of a MiG-29 fighter aircraft (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) in a landing accident. The pilot was killed instantly.
Ukrainian MiG-29 / Photo: PS ZSU
“On the night of August 22–23, 2025, following the completion of a combat mission, Major Serhii Viktorovych Bondar, a MiG-29 fighter pilot born in 1979, was killed during landing. “The cause and circumstances of the crash are being investigated. Our condolences go out to his family and friends…” — read a short Facebook post.
This marks the seventh combat aircraft lost by Ukraine this year:
- April 12 – an F-16AM multirole fighter crashed, killing its 26-year-old captain-ranked pilot instantly.
- April 28 – a Su-27 (NATO reporting name: Flanker) air superiority fighter crashed; the pilot ejected safely.
- May 16 – another F-16AM crashed while repelling a Russian attack; the pilot ejected safely.
- June 29 – another F-16AM crashed during a combat mission killing its pilot instantly.
- Night of July 18–19 – a Yak-52 trainer used for drone interception was lost; the two-man crew perished: Col. Konstantin Oborin, callsign Kamikaze, known as the Ghost of the South, and Staff Sgt. Roman Kutsenko.
- July 22 – a Dassault Mirage 2000-5F multirole fighter crashed during a training flight; the pilot ejected.
The circumstances of the MiG-29’s mission were not disclosed, but that same night Russia launched another wave of drone attacks, using Geran/Shahed UAVs and various drone decoys (including Gerbera). The strike was on a much smaller scale than the previous night. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the enemy launched 49 drones from Shatalovo, Kursk, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk; 36 were shot down, while 13 struck targets in seven locations across Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy oblasts.
Ukraine is believed to still operate around 36 MiG-29s, though this figure is only an estimate (43 were in service before the full-scale war). According to official data from the Polish Presidential Chancellery, Poland transferred 14 MiG-29s (confirmed in April 2023), joining Slovakia, whose previous government under PM Eduard Heger approved the transfer of 13 MiG-29AS/UBS. However, Ukraine may have lost up to 34 MiG-29s (though Russian claims of shootdowns are likely inflated). The exact operational fleet size remains classified. For example, the 2025 edition of The Military Balance claimed only 15 remained in service.
