As he waits for the plane to take off, the Ukrainian fighter pilot’s flight mask covers half his face, hiding his identity, but his narrowed eyes still reveal a cheerful smile. “Yes, that’s ours,” he says.
And Andriy says the terms have shifted in favor of him and his cohorts.
“Now the situation is calming down,” says Andriy. “In the beginning they were successful because of their crowd, but now the situation is getting better.
“Many Russian pilots refuse to fight because we shoot them down,” he claims.
Andriy agreed to speak with us on the condition that his full identity, rank and whereabouts – information that could help the Russian military target him – will not be revealed. He flies Russian-made Su-27 jets.
“I provide support and cover for aviation working to cover the ground. I’m focused on destroying missiles and enemy aviation, like air to air,” he explained. “I can’t tell you how many, but I shot down Russian jets.”
So far, he and his colleagues have been able to ward off apparent Russian superiority with careful planning and cunning tactics. Andriy doesn’t go into detail about what these strategies entail, but says they involve close coordination with other Ukrainian forces and some extreme risks.
“Russian pilots are flying more modern jets and they are capable of launching missiles at much longer ranges,” he said. “For example, to counter missiles fired 80 kilometers away, we need to get within 40 kilometers of them. If they’ve already launched a missile at us, we’ll have to have it intercepted somewhere along the way.”
And some of the moves they use on the battlefield are the result of training with the United States and other NATO allies.
“A few years ago we had the ‘Clear Sky’ exercise here in Ukraine and we flew alongside F-15 and F-16 jets,” recalls Andriy. “At the time we were developing certain tactics to deter fighter jets and I can tell you that some of those tactics really work.”
The strategy is part of the secret; the other are the pilots who put into practice.
“I wouldn’t say that the level of training of their pilots is very high,” Andriy said. “Since our foreign partners started sending us air defense equipment of various types, such as medium and short range, we have become safer in the air.”
“Many Russian pilots are now refusing to fly because they are afraid,” he adds.
The struggle for the Ukrainian sky
The skies over Ukraine remain up for grabs, almost a month after Russian jets flew into Ukrainian airspace for the first time.
Ukrainian forces claimed to have shot down more than 100 Russian jets and 123 helicopters on Tuesday, according to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers. Although Russia has not released any official data on the number of aircraft it lost during the invasion – it also has the number of casualties it has lost since the 2nd of April, equipment of all kinds, including aircraft.
“We do not believe that the Russians have achieved air superiority over Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.
“The airspace is contested and it’s contested because that’s how Ukrainians make it,” he said. “They are very clever in how they set up and deploy their air defense resources.”
The Ukrainian military says the reason it was able to fight back is because it was preparing for the possibility of a Russian invasion long before Russian soldiers began their march on Kyiv.
“We have been preparing for this scenario for eight years,” said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Yuri Ignat, adding that preparations began when Moscow occupied and then annexed Crimea in the spring of 2014. “These eight years we have learned to defeat the enemy with the weapons we have. And they understand.”
“That’s why they’re now switching to aerial terrorism,” he added, accusing Russia of attacking civilian infrastructure. “They drop bombs from 500 to 1,000 kilograms, they hit entire residential areas with children, women, hospitals. It looks like military terrorism and a crime against humanity.”
Russia regularly denies causing civilian casualties in Ukraine. International media and observers have extensively documented civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. International investigations into possible war crimes are ongoing.
Ignat says Ukraine is “grateful” to the United States and other NATO allies for the weapons they sent, but says his country needs more and better weapons.
“Russia is fighting with modern weapons – missiles, hypersonic missiles. That’s why we need western weapons that are technologically as good as the Russian ones. I’m talking about the NATO integrated air defense system, F-15 Eagle or F-16 Fighting Falcon. They may not be used or decommissioned – but they could serve the Ukrainian army,” he said.
“With these weapons we could face the enemy alone, we could close the skies.”
The US has refused to transfer Soviet-era Mig-29 fighter jets – which Ukraine already flies and which Poland is making available to the Americans – to Ukraine. It is unlikely that Washington would support the delivery of F-15 and F-16 jets, which would require further training for Ukrainian pilots. Andriy doesn’t go that far, but agrees that Ukraine needs additional weapons.
“To win, we need more than short-range systems like Stingers,” he said, referring to shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles.
“Their tactics are constantly changing, and now they’re flying at 50,000 feet most of the time,” he said. “Our Stingers can’t reach them.”
Ready to die for Ukraine
While waiting for additional NATO equipment, Ignat said, Ukrainian pilots are bringing something special to the battlefield.
“Fighting spirit and heroism cannot be ruled out,” he said. “The Russians don’t have that.”
But despite their perhaps surprising success, Kiev’s pilots remain underdogs in the battle for the Ukrainian skies.
“Sometimes two of our pilots will fight ten planes,” Ignat said. “They take off with a one-way ticket, they understand that they may die.”
Andriy does not lose her precarious existence. He is separated from his family, whose members are also involved in Ukraine’s war effort, he says, and knows his job comes with a great deal of mental stress.
“Of course I want this war to end as soon as possible, but we will fight, our morale is strong. This is our country and we will not share it with our opponent or destroy it,” he said.
“We will fight to the end,” he added. “Every human being is afraid of being killed, the difference is whether you die with dignity or without dignity.”