Andrii Pilshchykov - The Original Ghost. (Part 1)

The Ghost of Kyiv was the brainchild of Andrii Pilshchykov. He was the first to push for the legend to be spread after an engagement with the Russian Air Force in the first week of the unprovoked invasion. The engagement was like many at the time, with only four Ukrainian aircraft flying head-to-head with twelve to twenty Russian Aircraft. As soon as the Ukrainians fired their first missile, the Russian Aircraft turned and fled. Andrii would later explain this phenomenon to his mentor and pilot trainer “Stalker” from the civil air patrol.

“[They away run away] because it’s all Russian bravado: they are used to flying and bombing Syria, where there is no opposition to them.”(Militarnyi, August 2023).

Not only were the Russian fighter pilots cowards to Pilshchykov, but their Air Force did nothing but lie. After the first few hours of the war, the Russia Military declared air supremacy, which implied the complete destruction of the Ukrainian Air Force. Not only was this not true, but Ukraine was managing to hold the sky in many cases and deny Russian attacks. The Ghost of Kyiv was a way of letting the world know the Ukrainian Air Force was still in the fight, and that the Russian military had lied. “Stalker” recounted what Andrii told him about the Ukrainian Military’s decision to move forward with the Ghost of Kyiv propaganda campaign. (Stalker’s full name is protected in August 2023 obituary I am referencing).

“The commanders approved the idea of trolling the Russians, who said they had destroyed all [Ukrainian] aviation on the first day of the war. And Andrii, who had such a caustic trolling style, said: “And here we are on the very planes that they destroyed, which are not there – we are fighting them so much. And who are we? Ghosts!” (Militarnyi, August 2023).

Some of my reader may be familiar with the photo below. At the time, the pilot was a mysterious figure. The former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko shared this photo as the “Ghost of Kyiv”. At one time, it was even incorrectly labeled as Stepan Tarabalka. The photo is actually of Major Pilshchykov in 2019 wearing a French helmet.

Andrii “Juice” Pilshchykov became the famous face of the “Ghost of Kyiv”

You read correctly. Sadly, these quotes are referenced from an obituary. “Juice” was killed during a mid-air collision in August 2023 while trying to train new Ukrainian fighter pilots in low-level dog fight training in the airspace near Sinhury, Ukraine. Fighter pilot training is already dangerous, but trying to accomplish it during a war increases the risk. However, the story of Andrii Pilshchykov does not end here.    

“Juice”

Andrii Pilshchykov was born 3 February 1993 in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. He grew up infatuated with aviation, and when he was a teenager, ran a blog where he would traveled round the Kharkiv region taking pictures of any aircraft he could find. He entered the civil air patrol and first learned to fly on a Kh-32-912 Bekas aircraft with a pilot from the Civil Air Patrol NGO. (Presumably “Stalker”).

In order to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot, Andrii had to get corrective eye surgery, and after doing so was admitted as a student to the Ivan Kozhedub National Air Force University. His admission to the university is a product of cultural freedom. The University is named in honor of a Ukrainian and Soviet Pilot. It was one of two Soviet Air Force Academies. In those days, pilots came exclusively from aristocratic families. It was a high-class job to become a fighter pilot. It remained that way for a while after the Soviet Union crumbled, but Andrii is from a generation of pilots where every citizen had the opportunity.  

While a cadet at the Academy, Andrii was able to visit Operation Clear Skies in 2011. Clear Skies is a large force exercise conducted between Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Britain, and the United States. It has a long tradition. The last such exercise was in 2018, and it is an important event in the story of the Ghost of Kyiv. In 2011, Andrii first lay eyes on an F-16, and snapped this photo for his blog. I can only imagine what he felt when he later got to sit in one in Norway in 2014. I can hear him making the jet a promise to fly one someday.

The closest thing Ukraine had to such a fine aircraft was the Mig-29, and on April 19, 2016, Andrii made his first solo flight in a “Fulcrum” (NATO Designation for the Mig-29). The winter of the same year, he graduated the academy and was assigned to the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade at Vasilkiv Air Force Base. Here he would train and fly side by side with Stepan Tarabalka, Vadym Voroshylov, and many other skilled Mig-29 pilots.

Ukrainian Mig-29s

Life in in 40th was a constant generational struggle for these young pilots. They were being taught and trained by westerners, but the old guard still preferred Soviet Tactics, bureaucracy, and command style. It rested on their shoulders to move the Ukrainian Air Force forward as the shadow of Putin to the east grew stronger and civil war raged in the Donabas. And they did so in 2018 at Operation Clear Skies once more, this time with the 144th Fighter Wing of the California National Guard involved. A close relationship between the 144th and the members of the 40th Tactical fighter wing formed, and this relationship would become essential to training Ukrainian pilots in American Aircraft.

Andrii and several other pilots were invited after Clear Skies to travel to California and fly the F-15 Eagle. It was here Andrii was introduced to the best of American culture. As the story goes, they stopped at a pizzeria in their flight suits for lunch between flights. An American veteran paid the bill of the active-duty service members, to include the Ukrainians, thanking them for their service. Likewise, when police officers entered the establishment, the active-duty pilots covered their bill. This comradery stuck with Andrri, because military members of the old generation never treated the younger ones with that amount of gratitude in Ukraine. He resolved to emulate this kind of respect when he returned home and do everything he could to make sure his fellow warriors were treated the same way.  

 And then the Americans gave Andrii his callsign. The young Ukrainian pilot did not believe in drinking alcohol due to his religious faith, and whenever he would join the Americans at the bar, he would order juice. Out of respect for this, a name was born. As he returned home, the days raced on toward history and war, but Ukraine faced corruption issues. Pilots at home were training on dangerous, undermaintained equipment. The situation of neglect within the Ukrainian Air Force became so bad that many pilots began to resign in protest, or thinking of their own safety. In 2021, Andrii resigned his commission, giving a list of reasons. I used an AI program to translate the following image. Since it is a list of fragmented sentences, I turned them into more complete thoughts.

Andrii’s list of reasons for leaving the Ukrainian Air Force

1.     The state has insufficient controllability and passive power of activity. This leads to the inability of Air Force Institutions to address modern realities.

2.     Registration in the organization, or freedom of activity, does not correspond to life skills.

3.     Insufficient maturity of the pilot killed in training during last year's exercises. The unit is responsible.

4.     Poor Organization in the security system of Lviv.

5.     Taking into account these acts and preventing working with allies (like Poland and Romania).

6.     Insufficient modernization. Lack of joint leaders to strengthen the national plan.

7.     Strengthen the permanent policy for the implementation of tasks for the implementation of NATO standards. Now and in the future.

8.     Take into account and coordinate, if necessary, the insufficiency of joint leaders of forces and means.

9.     Insufficient state of all types of provisions

10.  Existing military labor regimes and influences due to the shortcomings of security scenarios of activity, as well as the predominance of the implementation of (unreadable).

11.  Insufficient social protection of the young staff and their families.

12.  Incomplete choice and low quality of education according to experienced instructors, lack of competence.

13.  Inconsistency of leaders of the policy of this generation, which, having transferred the message to others, in plans for this choice for the future.

14.  Wishes for more leave time (It think), not related to people's work.

Ukrainian pilots had a frustrating lack of an ability to have a proper family life, facing unsafe training conditions, and a general unwillingness to move forward. Some of this is due to old Soviet ties, but others seems to be the fear of being perceived as joining NATO. A fear which ultimately goes out the window when Russia invades you anyway. It is unknown whether the Air Force would have changed, and Andrii returned to the career he loved, but Putin would one day force his hand. We will save that story, for the next entry.

Works Cited:

Volodymyr B., Born for the sky: Andrii “Juice” Pilshchykov Obituary, Militarnyi, August 2023