The Ghost of Kiev — Another Ukrainian Fiction
May 1, 2022
Ukraine acknowledges that the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ is a myth
Emma Bubola, NY Times
He shot down numerous Russian planes, survived enemy attacks and became a symbol of Ukraine’s surprisingly effective air defenses, earning a bold wartime moniker: The Ghost of Kyiv.…
A day after the beginning of Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian media started reporting that an unknown pilot of a MIG-29 fighter jet had downed six enemy planes in 30 hours…
A former president of Ukraine, Petro O. Poroshenko, tweeted a picture…
On Feb. 27 [the Ukrainian government] relayed on Twitter the story and the photo, calling the unknown pilot “a nightmare for invading Russian aircrafts.”…
Some news outlets, including the Times of London, [eventually] identified the Ghost of Kyiv as Major Stepan Tarabalka… On Friday, several publications identified the pilot as Mr. Tarabalka, an airman who died in battle on Mar. 13 and was posthumously awarded the military honor “Hero of Ukraine.”…
The Kyiv Post reported that he had destroyed as many as 49 planes…
It has turned out to be one of the more successful pieces of propaganda in an information war that, at times, Ukraine has fought as fiercely as it has on the battlefield…
[The Poroshenko] photo, it turns out, was from a 2019 Twitter post by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry…
“The ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s Air Force Command wrote on Facebook on Saturday, dispelling the months-long rumor — fueled by Ukrainian authorities themselves…
