On social media, the “Ghost of Kyiv” became a navy hero, an ace fighter pilot hailed for supposedly taking pictures down a couple of Russian planes. The memories commenced simply days into the strugglefare and circulated for months, reinforced through reliable Ukrainian accounts.
But on Saturday, Ukrainian government admitted that the mythical pilot became a myth.
“The Ghost of Kyiv is a super-hero legend whose individual became created through Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s air pressure stated in Ukrainian on Facebook.
The announcement got here after a couple of media shops posted memories wrongly figuring out Major Stepan Tarabalka as the person in the back of the moniker. Tarabalka became a actual pilot who died on March thirteen at some point of air fight and became posthumously provided the name Hero of Ukraine, Ukraine’s air pressure stated closing month.
But he became now no longer the Ghost of Kyiv, the pressure stated in Saturday’s announcement.
“The records approximately the dying of the The Ghost of #Kyiv is incorrect,” Ukraine’s air pressure wrote in a separate submit Saturday on Twitter.
“The #GhostOfKyiv is alive, it embodies the collective spirit of the exceptionally certified pilots of the Tactical Aviation Brigade who’re effectively defending #Kyiv and the region.”
The legend emerged only a day after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, as social media customers commenced to unfold claims, with out evidence, of an nameless fighter pilot who had single-handedly taken down a couple of Russian planes.
Memes, unrelated photos, or even pictures from a flight simulator online game circulated on social media, claiming to reveal the Ghost of Kyiv at some point of fight.
On Feb. 25, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tweeted a image that Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense had shared 3 years earlier, falsely claiming it confirmed the Ghost of Kyiv who had taken down six Russian pilots.
Two days later, Ukraine’s reliable Twitter account shared a video together with the identical picture, together with pictures of fighter jets in fight, set to pulsating music, with the caption: “People name him the Ghost of Kyiv. And rightly so — this UAF ace dominates the skies over our capital and country, and has already turn out to be a nightmare for invading Russian aircrafts.”
That identical day, Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, shared the identical antique image on Telegram — however now claiming he had shot down 10 occupying planes.
By the time information shops, together with the Times of London, falsely recognized the pilot as Tarabalka on Friday, reviews had multiplied the ghost’s toll to forty planes. The Times later up to date its tale to mirror the air pressure’s new function at the Ghost of Kyiv.
