Ukraine acknowledges that ‘ghost of Kyiv’ is a fantasy

He shot down quite a few Russian planes, survived enemy assaults and have become an emblem of Ukraine’s surprisingly efficient air defenses, incomes a daring wartime moniker: The Ghost of Kyiv.

He can be, it seems, a fantasy.

“The ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s air drive command wrote on Facebook on Saturday, dispelling a monthslong rumor — fueled by Ukrainian authorities themselves — that had invigorated the resistance to Russia’s invasion.

The Ukrainian assertion got here after some information retailers, together with the Times of London, recognized the Ghost of Kyiv as Maj. Stepan Tarabalka, an precise 29-year-old who died in an air battle in March. The declare echoed throughout social media and tabloid publications in Ukraine and the West, seeming to substantiate that the story of the heroic fighter was actual.

Instead, it has turned out to be one of many extra profitable items of propaganda in an info conflict that, at occasions, Ukraine has fought as fiercely because it has on the battlefield.

It was solely a day after the start of Russia’s invasion that the Ukrainian media began reporting that an unknown pilot of a MIG-29 fighter jet had downed six enemy planes in 30 hours. Memes and illustrations began circulating on-line with the hashtag #ghostofkyiv, accumulating lots of of thousands and thousands of views.

Even a former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, tweeted an image of a pilot who he mentioned was the Ghost of Kyiv and who had “six victories over Russian pilots!”

“With such powerful defenders, Ukraine will definitely win!” Poroshenko wrote. (The picture, it turned out, was from a 2019 Twitter submit by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.)

The Ukrainian authorities additionally joined in. On Feb. 27 it relayed on Twitter the story and the picture, calling the unknown pilot “a nightmare for invading Russian aircrafts.” It posted a video praising the pilot that included a clip from a fight flight simulator.

Around the identical time, when the Ukrainian Defense Ministry introduced on Facebook that dozens of discharged army pilots have been returning to the air drive, it referred to the fascination with the nameless pilot: “Who knows, maybe one of them is the air avenger on the MIG-29.”

The tales proliferated and overlapped. After reviews in early March that the Ghost of Kyiv had been shot down, Ihor Mosiychuk, a former Ukrainian lawmaker, reported that the pilot survived, went again to his base, took off in one other jet and downed one other enemy aircraft.

“The ghost is alive!” he wrote on Facebook. The Kyiv Post reported that he had destroyed as many as 49 planes.

Skepticism unfold in some quarters. But the legend solely grew. Artists produced NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, with the pilot’s picture. Blue and gold “Ghost of Kyiv” flyers and illustrations circulated on-line.

On Friday, a number of publications recognized the pilot as Tarabalka, an airman who died in battle March 13 and was posthumously awarded the army honor “Hero of Ukraine.” The Times of London additionally quoted Ukrainian sources as saying the pilot’s helmet and goggles have been anticipated to go on sale at an public sale in London.

The subsequent day, the air drive command of Ukraine’s armed forces debunked the claims. “Hero of Ukraine Stepan Tarabalka is NOT ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ and he did NOT shoot down 40 planes,” it wrote on Facebook. But it nonetheless labored to maintain the parable going.

“The #GhostOfKyiv is alive,” the air drive wrote on Twitter. “It embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots of the Tactical Aviation Brigade who are successfully defending #Kyiv and the region.”

For many Ukrainians, that was all that mattered.

“He IS a legend,” Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, wrote on Twitter. “He can’t be killed — he is a ghost.”