Posted on 05/02/2022 12:10:54 AM PDT by Mount Athos
The “Ghost of Kyiv” is a myth, Ukrainian officials admitted over the weekend.
After several news outlets last week identified the legendary, mysterious, hero fighter pilot as a 29-year-old dad recently killed in battle with the Russians, military officials acknowledged Saturday that there was no such person.
“The ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s Air Force Command wrote on Facebook.
The reputed hero had been credited with taking out as many as 40 Russian aircraft until he was shot down March 13 while battling an “overwhelming” number of enemy forces, the Times of London had reported.
The Times identified the supposed Ukrainian war hero as Major Stepan Tarabalka.
But while Tarabalka was a distinguished war hero, he was not the “Ghost” — because there never was such a person, Ukraine said.
“Hero of Ukraine Stepan Tarabalka is NOT ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ and he did NOT shoot down 40 planes,” said the country’s Air Force Command.
Instead, the moniker belongs collectively to all of Ukraine’s hero fighter pilots, military officials said.
“The #GhostOfKyiv is alive. It embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots of the Tactical Aviation Brigade who are successfully defending #Kyiv and the region,” the command tweeted.
The Ukrainian government had previously been key in creating and perpetuating the myth of a single brave and particularly on-target fighter pilot.
“People call him the Ghost of Kyiv. And rightly so,” the government tweeted in February of the reputed mysterious figure, saying the pilot had “already become a nightmare for invading Russian aircraft.”
But many people questioned whether the “Ghost” was real, as a video purporting to be evidence of the fighter turned out to instead be from a video game.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
But, if he did, he would be Hall of Fame material, for sure.
Well 🙄
Well, there’s that pianist and dancer dude.
There are people right here on Free Republic gullible enough to have believed it.
or the countless Ukranian potato farmer peasants who disabled columns of Russian tanks longer then the Highway of Death in the Gulf War?
.
Everyone over 30 knew this.
What other lies are they telling?
The deaths of all those Russian generals and soldiers is definitely a lie as well.
Russian Nerve Gas attacks, Mobile Crematoriums…. The lies are legion
Probably all wars are built on lies, but this one has got some real winners. They’re so transparent and exaggerated that they would almost be funny - if they weren’t egging us on to nuclear war.
What else is the Ukrainian government lying about? I support neither side; I think both governments are crooked, and am convinced democrats and RINOS are bent on getting us directly involved in a huge war.
They mistakenly believe that Americans would be reticent to change government if we were at war. I doubt that; we may be stupid, but we don’t have fits.
There is a long list of fake stories coming out of Ukraine.
Their Ministry of Defense should be renamed Ministry of Lies.
I'm guessing he was a CIA creation...
You swallowed the lie hook, line, and sinker. Kiev has a has a stable of useful idiots on FR.
I knew the ghost of Kiev was propaganda.
The shark of Kiev isn’t though. The guy free dives and so far has taken out 6 Russian subs with a knife.
Has our new Ministry of Truth debunked this yet?
/s
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