Ukrainian pilot, Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mikhail Matyushenko with the call sign " As Anatoly Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, where Colonel Matyushenko was a resident, said on Facebook, he died on June 26, but his body was found only now.

61-year-old Matyushenko had experience flying various military and civilian aircraft.. Before the war, he worked as the head of one of the Ukrainian airlines.

“Mikhail Matyushenko, call sign Grandfather, passed on his invaluable work experience to the younger generation. And only now we have the right to tell the truth: “The Ghost of Kyiv” was led by a pilot from Bucha,” Fedoruk wrote..

We are talking about the fact that Mikhail Matyushenko led the legendary 40th tactical aviation brigade of the PS of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - the combined image of its pilots formed the basis of the legend of the "

“One night, Grandfather rushed into an air battle on an L-39, simulating a MiG-29 attack on a pair of Su-30s.. What do you think? They retreated! ”, - Fedoruk quotes Matyushenko’s brothers and adds that he subsequently decided to strengthen the southern and eastern fronts: “When Grandfather found out about the irretrievable losses of trained bomber crews, the decision was made. Thus began a new operation..

It was this mission that was the last for Mikhail Matyushenko - he did not return from the next flight, and they were looking for him for a long time.

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The body of the hero was found and brought home to Bucha. The farewell ceremony will take place on Monday, October 3, at 14:00, on the Alley of Heroes (at the cemetery at. Deputy, 1).

Recall that at the end of August, in honor of the pilots of the 40th tactical aviation brigade in Podol in Kyiv, a mural with the “Ghost of Kyiv” was created.. For their work, the artists took a photo of one of the pilots of the brigade, led by 61-year-old Mikhail Matyushenko. The image shows a “ghost” pilot in the cockpit of the famous MiG-29 aircraft..