Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet crashes near Odesa, pilot ejects safely

A Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet has crashed in the Odesa region. According to Ukraine's air force, the aircraft was carrying out a combat mission to destroy enemy aerial targets when an emergency occurred during the launch of an air-to-air missile.

The air force command said on Telegram that the plane subsequently caught fire, and the pilot lost control of the aircraft despite attempts to save it. The pilot successfully ejected and was taken to a medical facility.

Nearly five years of war in the skies

Ukraine has been fending off the Russian invasion for almost four and a half years now, and airstrikes remain a constant feature of the fighting on both sides. Moscow has recently stepped up attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure used for agricultural exports, as well as on merchant vessels in the Black Sea — particularly near the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk.

Kyiv, for its part, continues to strike Russian targets in the Black Sea region, including tankers carrying Russian oil, as well as targets in occupied Crimea. Both sides in the conflict maintain that they only target military installations or facilities directly supporting combat operations.

Not the first MiG-29 loss

This is not the first such incident in recent weeks. Another Ukrainian MiG-29 reportedly crashed during a combat mission in the Poltava region on 27 June, with the pilot also managing to eject in time. A few days earlier, a Su-24M tactical bomber went down in the Khmelnytskyi region, killing both crew members.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz