Vadym uploaded the selfie to his Instagram account

A UKRAINIAN pilot has taken the world’s most courageous selfie – a thumbs up sign next to his blood-covered face as he was ejected from his MiG-29 and plummeted towards the ground.

Maj. Vadym Voroshylov took the astonishing photograph moments after an Iranian drone crippled his aircraft while he was defending his country’s power plants from Russian drone and missile attacks.

Debris from the impact of the drone caused the head wound which left the blood dripping down his face.

The fighter pilot even had the presence of mind to direct his MiG away from a residential area over Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine seconds before he was propelled from his cockpit.

Vadymn in happier times

The feat on October 22 saw him awarded the “Hero of Ukraine, Order of the Gold Star” by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky last week, and the eternal thanks of the people below who were saved thanks to his bravery.

 “Our country and the wonderful Ukrainians are invincible and unbreakable. It is in this struggle that one sees national unity and the nation builds itself up” – wrote the pilot on his Instagram page.

Meanwhile, following the news on the loss of Vadym’s plane, residents of Vinnytsia decided to raise funds for a new aircraft for their defender.

Earlier Vadym, who flies under the call sign of Karaya, had won a reputation as a drone killed after shooting down five in a week, along with two missiles.

Vadym also uploaded a hospital picture to Instagram

Having undergone medical treatment for the head wound, and a neck injury, Vadym is already back in the air.

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  • Dennis Rice

    National Security News (NSN) welcomes the appointment of Dennis Rice, former Chief Reporter of the Daily Express and Investigations Editor of the Mail on Sunday, as its Launch Editor. He brings with him three decades of experience covering national and international news, which has also included a stint working as a producer at Channel 4 Dispatches. Commenting on his new role, Dennis said: “NSN is a digital platform which exists purely to break stories and uncover new twists and exclusives around existing ones. Whether it’s reporting on the cloak and dagger world of espionage, cyber terrorism, subversion, or intelligence we are very much looking forward to giving the existing media a run for its money.” Dennis Rice is a veteran investigative journalist who has finished as a runner up in Journalist of the Year category at the British Press Awards. He also worked as Investigations Editor of the Mail on Sunday, Chief Reporter of the Daily Express, and as a senior journalist at the Sunday Mirror and the News of the World. His Dispatches credits include working as a producer on How To Stop Your Nuisance Calls (an expose on charity fundraisers) and Murder in the Sky: Flight MH17 (reporting on the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down over the eastern Ukraine). While at the Mail on Sunday he wrote a series of articles which resulted in the resignation of BP Chief Lord Browne, and earlier David Blunkett as the then Work and Pensions Secretary. In 2011 he was paid damages at the High Court after his former employer the News of the World admitted hacking his phone.