She remains the only woman ever credited with conducting an aerial ramming, though many aviation historians question the credibility of such reports due to a lack of solid evidence.

Starting on 5 July she made combat missions on an Su-2 over the Ukrainian SSR, for which she was thanked by the leadership of the 21st Army.

After Pavlyk returned to base he informed command that they were shot down and that Zelenko was either dead or badly wounded, but he did not seek out the crash site since he was afraid the Germans were there and did not want to become a prisoner of war.

After shooting down two of them she ran out of ammunition, so she launched a downward ramming which tore a Bf 109 in two as the propeller of her plane hit the German aircraft's tail.

[7] While it is undisputed that she flew 40 missions on the Su-2 and engaged in 12 aerial battles, many aviation historians from both Russia and the US strongly doubt or outright disagree with the claim that Zelenko actually committed an aerial ramming, pointing out major discrepancies in the accounts describing her alleged ramming.

For flying 40 missions she qualified for the title Hero of the Soviet Union, she was initially just awarded the Order of Lenin, likely because she was considered missing.