Andrii Pilshchykov - The Original Ghost. (Part 3) Bringing the Viper to the War
Zelensky Thanks the United States in a very grateful way for their F-16s.
"If you cannot shut the sky now, then give a timeline when you will do it. If you cannot provide a timeline, tell us how many people have to die? Tell me how many. I'll go to count and wait for the moment. I hope the sky will be shut down. If you don't have strength and courage to do that, then give me the planes.” ~Volodymyr Zelensky 3 March 2022 (Basu, 2022)
When Zelensky asked for us to close the sky, we could have. It would have meant calling an incredible bluff. It would have looked foolhardy to anyone who didn’t know better, and its hard to be transparent enough without giving away classified information as to why we could ignore Putin’s nuclear saber rattling. In truth starting a no-fly zone would have placed the ball in the Russian’s court. If they were to engage us as we patrolled the sky, the war to follow would be their fault. The same situation occurred during the Cuban missile crisis with ships, only we were much closer to home.
When the Russians gave up their attack on Kyiv, the United States and NATO had another opportunity to close the sky, in the interest of protecting Ukrainian civilians. But our approach was conservative. So, what about giving Ukraine the planes? This seems like a reasonable request considering From September 28, 2022, to September 1, 2024, Russia launched a total of 11,466 missiles. On average, 23.2 missiles were launched daily at mostly civilian targets and infrastructure. As it turns out, western Republics were squeamish on getting Ukraine the aircraft they would need to turn the tide.
Juice and his wingman Olenskii “Moonfish” Mes would be instrumental in giving the United States and NATO the courage to move forward with arming the Ukrainian Air Force with the HARM Missile, the F-16, and the Mirage 2000. It all started with the two pilots taking a trip to the United States in June, 2022.
I’m trying to learn the circumstances of how their invitation came about. I suspect members of the 144th fighter wing of the California National guard might have had something to do with it. Whatever the case may be, Juice and Moonfish made their way to Washington DC and met with Senator Lindsey Grahm, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and many others.
Before the visit, Grahm remarked that getting F-16s to Ukraine would be a “tough sell”. Juice and Moonfish were introduced in a session of congress. Kinzinger also introduced a bill called the “Ukrainian Fighter Pilots Act.” Their role was to convince the lawmakers that Ukrainian pilots could quickly train on and master the F-16. These were two pilots who had already flown exercise missions on the F-15. By the time they had finished their rounds in congress and completed several interviews with major American news networks, there were few who still doubted the pilots. The Bill passed, and all that remained was to convince the Biden Administration. Would the F-16 enter the fray soon enough to turn the tide in the air?
“I believe that more than any other person out there, “Juice” is responsible for the F-16s coming to Ukraine. He did countless, tireless interviews with western media, pleading for modern jets, and when that wasn’t enough, he traveled across the ocean to look the American Senators in the eyes and to tell them that Ukrainian pilots can fly anything. And the Senators believed. Now, the jets are coming and when the first F-16 crosses the Ukrainian sky, Juice will be there,” said Adam Makos, an American writer and military historian.
As effective as this first trip was, it took another year before a plan went in motion to get Ukraine the F-16. On 11 July 2023, an international coalition of eleven European nations was formed during the NATO Vilnius summit to train pilots, technicians, and maintenance support for the F-16. Greece joined the coalition a month later on 22 August. Almost reluctantly, the United States finally joined on 24 August.
By 2023 Russian propaganda was rampant in the US. Tucker Carlson left Fox news in April of 2023 and by July 2023 Twitter had become X, catering to misinformation more than ever before. In August 2023, the same month the F-16 was finally under commitment from the United States, Tucker Carlson interviewed the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. And my family listened. Not only did they listen, they called me “one sided” for not wanting to listen to a smart version of Trump and a Propogandist. And so . . . I forced myself to watch the interview. There were forces hard at work to slowly drill into the mind of the average US citizen that the war was Ukraine’s fault. What hurt is that people trusted this farce of an interview over someone like me, who lived bathed in the truth of the matter both on a classified and unclassified level. As a result, I understand what a huge victory it was for Ukraine to get the “Viper”.
Tragedy struck before Andrii Pilshchykov would ever see the fruits of his hard ambassador work. As mentioned in part 1, Juice and two other pilots (Major Viacheslav Minka and Major Serhii Prokazin ) when their two L-39M1 trainer planes died in a mid-ai collision during dogfight training with L-39M1 aircraft on the evening of 25 August 2023. Zelensky offered remarks the next day. It would be a almost a full year before Ukraine would get their first F-16s.
After his long-time dear friend and wingman was laid to rest, Moonfish had this to say as he took up the mantle of leader for advocacy of the F-16.
"Andriy was the 'ideas man' and the main driving force behind it all. And I feel responsible to him for ensuring these planes arrive." (Tatasova-Markina and Kottasova, August 2024)
At long last, on 5 August 2024, the first Ukrainian F-16s went operational. Six of them. On 26 August, Russia launched its most massive missile and drone attack yet. The F-16s moved to intercept, helping to shoot down 102 of 127 missiles and 99 of 109 drones. The Vipers most likely closed on their targets and used the AIM-9 Sidewinder to take down the aging cruise missiles and fat Turkish drones, saving their stockpile of AIM-120B AAMRAM Radar Missiles for more difficult fights to come against the Russian Air Force.
Two Days later, Russia fired again. This time, Moonfish was sent to chase down the enemy, and did not return. His aircraft crashed after taking down three missiles and a drone. This brought his total kills in the F-16 to 7 missiles and a drone. Another ace pilot, and another hero, was gone.
For now, Ukraine needs to be cautious with less than a dozen F-16s. They were supposed to have around 30 to 35 by now, But Belgium delayed its delivery because the United States Delayed the delivery of F-35s we sold to the country. That’s the official story. Unofficially, the United States cannot be trusted to hold up its side of the bargain on any arms deal, especially to a European NATO country. And that is the fight we need to win here at home, for ourselves as much as Ukraine.
Until then, Juice and Moonfish will be waiting, patrolling the skies over Ukraine as Ghosts of Kyiv.
Works Cited
Basu, Zachary (3 March 2022). "Zelensky: If West won't impose no-fly zone, "give me the planes"". Axios. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
B., Volodymyr. "Born for the sky: Andrii "Juice" Pilshchykov obituary". Militarnyi. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
Daria Tarasova-Markina and Ivana Kottasová (29 August 2024) Ukraine says US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed, killing a Top Pilot, ABC Eyewitness News Retrieved 18 March 2025/
