Stepan Chobanu - Know Your Own

He flew over Khreshchatyk in three Independence Day parades, retired in 2010 and climbed back into a Su-27 cockpit in 2015. On 28 February 2022, Major Stepan Chobanu was the first to take off over Kropyvnytskyi, so the rest of his unit's jets could get airborne. Hero of Ukraine, posthumously.

Over Khreshchatyk

Stepan Chobanu was born in 1963 in the village of Dolynske in the south of the Odesa region. He did his conscript service as an ambulance driver, and in 1987 he graduated from the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. He began his career with a fighter regiment in Kirovohrad, today’s Kropyvnytskyi, and in 1990 he retrained on the Su-27 and moved to the 831st Regiment in Myrhorod.

In 1992 he swore allegiance to the people of Ukraine. He became a military pilot 1st class, with more than 1,100 hours on the L-39, MiG-23 and Su-27. In 1996, 2001 and 2008 Chobanu flew over Khreshchatyk in Kyiv’s Independence Day military parades. In Myrhorod he served in the same brigade as Oleksandr Oksanchenko.

Back from retirement

Stepan Chobanu retired in 2010. But in 2015, with russia already waging war on Ukraine, he went back to his 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade. As one of the most experienced pilots, he stood combat duty with the air defence forces and passed on what he knew to younger pilots.

First in the sky

On 24 February 2022 he got his jet out from under a missile strike and kept flying combat sorties. On 28 February, over Kropyvnytskyi, Chobanu was the first to take off in his Su-27, and he began drawing enemy aircraft towards himself. That gave the rest of his unit’s jets time to take off, get clear of the strike and move to a reserve airfield. That day, Major Stepan Chobanu was killed in an air battle over Kropyvnytskyi. He was 58.

Why it matters today

Stepan Chobanu could have stayed retired, but he climbed back into the cockpit when the war came to Ukraine. The experience he had spent years passing on to younger pilots became protection when the country needed it most. In the first days of the invasion he shielded others, and his unit’s jets survived to keep defending the sky. His example shows that courage is a choice a person makes again and again, not only when they are young.