Five Brave Ukrainian MiG Pilots Blunted the Russian Attack On Kyiv On Day One Of The War. Not All Of Them Survived.

The Kremlin had a bold—some might say reckless—plan for swiftly defeating the Ukrainian armed forces and toppling the government in Kyiv. The plan, involving simultaneous heliborne and armored assaults on Kyiv, ultimately failed.

Ukrainian border guards, local territorial troops and fighter pilots fought hard in the first hours of the Russian assault starting in the early morning hours on Feb. 24. They succeeded in slowing the Russians and buying time for Ukrainian reinforcements to arrive.

But many of them, including Ukrainian air force MiG-29 pilot Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Yerko, died in the fight.

Yerko’s story in particular is a window into those heady early hours of Feb. 24, when the Russian gambit for a short war came close to succeeding—and then spectacularly backfired.

The Russian rockets and missiles struck first. Long-range munitions rained down on Ukrainian bases and airfields. Among the targets in the pre-dawn hours was Vasylkiv air base, 20 miles southwest of central Kyiv.

Vasylkiv is home to the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade, one of four brigades operating Ukraine’s roughly 50 twin-engine, supersonic MiG-29 fighters.

The rockets and missiles the Russian lobbed at Vasylkiv that first night failed to damage the base or its resident fighters. Tipped off by U.S. intelligence, the Ukrainian air force had spread out its jets, complicating Russian targeting.

When the sun rose, a 700-man Russian air-assault force, riding in 24 Mil Mi-8 transport helicopters escorted by 10 Mil Mi-24 and Kamov Ka-52 gunships, flew at low level toward Hostomel airport on the northwest edge of Kyiv just 25 miles north of Vasylkiv. Russian air force fighters flew top cover.

The heliborne soldiers were supposed to seize and hold Hostomel and allow thousands more Russian troops to fly into Kyiv at the same time a Russian armored force rolled toward the city from the northwest and northeast.

The armored thrusts would collapse weeks later as Ukrainian infantry packing Javelin anti-tank missiles ambushed their supporting supply convoys.

By then the Kremlin’s Kyiv gambit already had failed. It failed when the Ukrainian air force, army and border guard prevented a quick takeover at Hostomel.

The 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade’s MiG-29 pilots were instrumental in this decisive early victory for Ukraine. Five MiG-29s took off, turned north and sliced into the Russian helicopter formation rotoring toward the airport.

Yerko alone shot down two Mi-24s, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry. Ukrainian pilots and air-defense troops on the ground in total downed at least four of the 34 helicopters in the Hostomel assault.

The Ukrainian MiGs disrupted the Russians’ air support, depriving the hundreds of soldiers at Hostomel of the firepower they needed to defeat the Ukrainian border guards and territorial troops holding much of the airport. Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-24 bombers flew in at low level and dropped sticks of unguided bombs on the hapless Russian attackers.

The Ukrainian defenders held on around Hostomel until special operations forces and heavier active army formations arrived. The Russians reinforced their positions at the airport with their own heavier forces that rolled south from Belarus, but by Feb. 27 the Ukrainians had massed artillery around the airport—and were systematically demolishing Russian positions.

The Russians never were able to fly forces into Hostomel after that first day. The airport battle dragged on for several more weeks, but the likely outcome was obvious after just a few hours.

It’s not clear exactly when the surviving Russians pulled out of Hostomel. But it was before March 29, the date the Kremlin ordered its battered forces around Kyiv to retreat back to Belarus and southern Russia.

Hundreds of Russians and Ukrainians died fighting for Hostomel airport. Yerko was among the casualties. After reportedly shooting down two helicopters the morning of Feb. 24, he pointed his MiG-29 at the Russian fixed-wing aircraft operating over Kyiv.

Over the next 24 hours he shot down a Suhkoi Su-25 attack jet and a Sukhoi Su-35 fighter, the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed. There is possible visual evidence of the former kill. The latter kill, if it actually occurred, didn’t leave any obvious traces.

The air battle over Kyiv in those first 24 hours was costly for both sides. The Russians shot down at least three MiG-29s, including Yerko’s. The colonel managed to eject. But “cowardly” Russian troops on the ground shot him dead as he floated down, the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed.

Three months later, after the Ukrainian army had finished pushing the Russian army out of northern Ukraine, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Yerko the title “Hero of Ukraine, Gold Star Order.”

Yerko posthumously shares the award with some of Ukraine’s bravest and most famous pilots, including Maj. Vadym Voroshylov, who in October survived the destruction of his own MiG-29 … and snapped a bloody selfie as he parachuted to safety.