At the beginning of Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, a pretty amazing story emerged that was picked up by multiple news outlets. The story goes that a lone heroic Ukrainian fighter pilot shot down six Russian Air Force jets by himself on the first day of the conflict. Outnumbered and outgunned, he boosted the morale of Ukrainian forces and became a media sensation.
The story was amplified by social media as the lore of a heroic and rogue pilot grew. Some even posted that the pilot shot down a total of 40 aircraft before finally being shot down himself. Now in a Facebook post on Ukraine’s official Facebook page, they admit that the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ was never real.
The news comes after major news outlets questioned whether the story was true. Some outlets suggested that Major Stepan Tarabalka was the real ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ and recently killed in battle. In the post below though, Ukraine’s Air Force attempts to set the record straight both the story is a legend and that no single pilot shot down 40 aircraft, let alone the original story that a pilot shot down 6 in one day.
A translation of the post on Facebook states, the “Ghost of Kiev is a superhero-legend whose character was created by Ukrainians! This is a faster collected image of pilots of the 40th Air Force tactical aviation brigade, who protect the sky of the capital. What suddenly appear where they are not expected!”
