By The War Zone | Created at 2025-02-25 11:54:40 | Updated at 2025-03-04 11:04:35
1 week ago
Since at least the summer of last year, the Ukrainian Air Force has been flying an unusual, black-painted MiG-29 Fulcrum. A recently published official video shows the jet in more detail, although it remains unclear exactly why it was repainted in this way.
The footage was posted to Facebook on the official account of the Ukrainian Air Force’s 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade. The aircraft is shown from above, as well as filmed on the ground surrounded by various support vehicles (of Soviet and Western origin) as well as members of the various personnel groups who support the brigade’s wartime operations.
The MiG-29 in question — a single-seat Fulcrum-C — is painted in an overall matte black scheme. There are also blue and yellow markings on the wing leading edges, the flaps and ailerons, and the tailplanes. These are to provide a rapid visual identification, to try and avoid ‘friendly fire’ incidents. This is especially critical for this jet as many Russian tactical jets also adopt a charcoal gray color scheme. The nose also has a white ‘Ghost Of Kyiv’ emblem — this motif appeared early on in the conflict as a morale-booster.
An overhead view of the MiG-29 together with support vehicles, including a U.S.-supplied Humvee. Ukrainian Air Force What’s far less clear is why the fighter otherwise wears overall black, although the jet is known to have emerged before August 2024, when photos of the repainted MiG began to circulate on social media.
One of the first photos of the black MiG, which emerged last summer, showing the jet before the blue and yellow identification panels were added. via X 
Another early photo of the black MiG, now with the blue and yellow identification panels applied. via X The new paint was added after an overhaul, which is standard Ukrainian Air Force practice, although the black scheme seems to be an anomaly. So far, it’s only been seen on the MiG-29, but more than one of these aircraft may have received it by now. Otherwise, most MiG-29s have emerged from in-depth overhauls with different variations of the ‘pixelated’ camouflage, with different shades of gray.
Photographed pre-war, a two-seat MiG-29UB with the ‘pixelated’ camouflage applied after an in-depth overhaul. Ukrainian Air Force It’s worth noting that there have been a handful of other special MiG-29 schemes for refurbished jets, as well, most notably the highly colorful one inspired by the pre-war Ukrainian Falcons display team, which you can see in the video below and read more about here.
It seems the patriotic paintwork was added primarily as a morale booster, reflecting the continued ability of the Ukrainian Air Force to fight against overwhelming odds, and of the local maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities to keep the MiGs serviceable, even when facing Russian attacks.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, dozens of combat aircraft (also Su-24s and Su-27s) have been refurbished and returned to service to help address attrition losses and the demands for additional airpower. At least some of these were returned to action after long periods standing dormant or in storage.
Photographed pre-war, a MiG-29 heads for an in-depth overhaul after a long period inactive. Ukrainian Air Force The MiG-29 fleet has been further boosted by aircraft transferred from Poland and Slovakia, which began to arrive in the spring and summer of 2023. These aircraft have retained their previous colors, with the addition of blue and yellow identification panels.
While the pixelated gray colors are optimized to reduce visual conspicuity during daytime sorties, the black scheme would appear to have the opposite effect — making the aircraft even more obvious against the sky. Indeed, the U.K. Royal Air Force paints its training aircraft in (gloss) black specifically to enhance their visual signatures and reduce the chances of collisions.
On the other hand, the dramatic-looking black Fulcrum finish may be more connected to the mythical Ghost of Kyiv legend — the popular accounts told early on in the conflict that suggested a single Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot had become ace in a day in defense of the capital.
There were rumors, later proven to be erroneous, that the Ghost might have been Stepan Tarabalka, a MiG-29 pilot killed in action in March 2022 and posthumously awarded Hero of Ukraine honors.
On March 13, 2022, Major Stepan Tarabalka died heroically during an air battle with the dominant forces of the russian invaders.
Major Stepan Tarabalka was awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine" (posthumously) for the protection of airspace, his bravery and commitment. pic.twitter.com/8ZI7Mtugvs
A photo of the supposed pilot was even posted to social media by former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
It later emerged that the pilot in that photo was Andrii Pilshchykov, the MiG-29 pilot better known by the callsign “Juice,” who gave several in-depth interviews about the air war to TWZ. Before his death in a flying accident, Juice had told us: “Actually, [the Ghost of Kyiv is] from my home base, my unit … I couldn’t tell you all the details now, but I think after the victory you will know everything about him.”
Andrii Pilshchykov in the cockpit of a MiG-29, in a photo widely shared as showing the supposed Ghost of Kyiv. Ukrainian Air Force While Juice maintained that at least some details of the Ghost of Kyiv story were grounded in reality, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has admitted that the idea of a single pilot filling this role is a “superhero legend,” and that the story “embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots.”
Clearly, the idea of an avenging MiG-29 pilot sweeping Russian aircraft from the skies, and becoming a national hero in the process, is a potent one, and the Ghost of Kyiv myth has endured, as seen in the use of the emblem on jets and crew patches, for example.
It’s certainly very possible that the 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade took the decision to paint a single MiG-29 in a ghostly black scheme to continue that myth. On the other hand, the Ukrainian Air Force does have something of a history of painting jets in less-than-standard color schemes. At this point, we don’t know for sure but have asked the service for more details.
Meanwhile, despite the arrival of the F-16, the MiG-29 is still the service’s most numerous fighter, by a fairly considerable margin, compared with other types. While it began the war flying almost exclusively air defense sorties, the arrival of Western-supplied precision-guided munitions means it’s now a multirole fighter and it has been widely used for offensive missions. For these, it can be armed with the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), the Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER), and the French-supplied Hammer rocket-assisted bomb.
While the exact reasoning behind the all-black MiG-29 remains mysterious for now, there is little doubt that the Soviet-era fighter remains a very important asset for the Ukrainian Air Force and one that every effort will be made to keep in service via continued refurbishment, even as western 4th generation F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighters trickle into the service’s tactical jet fleet. As that continues, we may well see other unorthodox color schemes emerge too.
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