The “Kiev Ghost” was to shoot down up to 40 enemy aircraft. This was an incredible performance in an area where Russia controls airspace. However, the command of the Ukrainian Air Force has now warned on Facebook that the Kiev ghost or “the spirit of Kiev is only a legend, a figure created by the Ukrainians.”
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“The Kiev ghost is alive and embodies the collective image of highly qualified tactical air brigade pilots who successfully defend Kyiv and the surrounding region,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat told the London daily. The Times after a letter referring to “Ukrainian sources” identified the pilot as Major Stepan Tarabalka and announced that Tarabalka had been killed in combat on March 13 and was posthumously awarded the Hero of Ukraine medal.
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“We are asking the Ukrainian community not to neglect the basic rules of information hygiene,” the report said, which called on people to “verify the sources of information before they start disseminating it.”
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List of Messages in Ukrainian
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Earlier reports of the pilot referred to as 29-year-old Major Stepan Tarabalka. This claim was heard on social networks in Ukraine and the West and seemingly confirmed that the story of the heroic warrior is true. Instead, it turned out to be one of the most successful propaganda pieces in the information war, which Ukraine sometimes wages as hard as it does on the battlefield.
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At the beginning of the war, the legend spread quickly on social networks, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense even published a video on Twitter, which, according to him, shows how the pilot shot down a Russian plane. It was later revealed that the footage came from a flight simulator.
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For weeks, the Ukrainians had no name for the “spirit of Kiev” – but that did not prevent the story from becoming viral on social media. It was used as a marketing brand by a Ukrainian manufacturer of aircraft models, in another case, the Ukrainian Iryna Kostyrenková boasted a military badge inspired by this legend. The Department of Defense has posted a video on Twitter celebrating Tarabalk’s heroism.
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Military experts for BBC they said they doubted that one pilot could shoot down up to 40 Russian planes. Ukrainian military historian Mikhail Zhirohov called the story of the Kiev spirit a “propaganda to raise morale.” In an interview with the BBC from Chernihov, he said that at the beginning of the war, the Russians controlled Ukrainian airspace, so that the Ukrainian pilot “could only shoot down two or three”.
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“Necessary propaganda”
“This propaganda is necessary because our armed forces are smaller and many think we cannot match them. We need it during the war, “he said. The fact that Ukrainian pilots are still denying Russia complete control of the sky and flying on worse, older MiG-29 aircraft of Russian design, inspired the modern legend.
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Russia has had more than two months to phase out Ukraine’s air defenses with all its military might – and has failed to do so, the BBC said.
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The Ukrainian authorities instigated the spirit of the Kiev legend just days after the start of the war. Through the Telegram application, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) described the “spirit of Kiev” as an “angel”, saying that he shot down 10 Russian planes. However, she did not mention the pilot’s name, and the Ukrainian media later stated that the photograph used was old.
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The fact that Ukraine has denied the existence of the “Spirit of Kiev” is new, the news of Tarabalk’s death is not. American station NPR she informed about the pilot’s death in March, and even interviewed his parents. However, they did not mention the Spirit of Kiev and did not claim that it was Tarabalka.
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The story raised Ukrainian morale
One of Ukraine’s military experts, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC that the story of the Ghost of Kiev “helped raise morale at a time when people needed simple stories.” The story of the cruiser Moscow also increased Ukraine’s morale. At first, the Ukrainian border guards rebelled against the Russian missile cruiser with a rough gesture, which was reminded by a popular postage stamp.
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Later, Ukraine cruiser Moscow – the pride of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – moreover, according to its own claims, sank, this was to happen after being hit by two Neptune missiles. Russia admitted that there was a fire on board and that the ship sank, but it did not mention whether it was really a Ukrainian attack.
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Justin Crump of Sibylline security consulting firm said the legend of the Kiev spirit was important because in our social media age, “people need myths, legends and heroes that give them coherence and meaning.”
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Heroic fighter pilots have entered national mythology in other countries as well. Great Britain celebrates the brave pilots of the Royal Air Force, who outnumbered the powerful Nazi Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
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Russia itself highlights the heroism of World War II pilots, over whom the then Nazi Germany had the upper hand. According to the stories being told, some of them deliberately crashed into enemy planes when they ran out of ammunition.
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No wonder legends like the Kiev spirit appear, the BBC website wrote. Russian and Ukrainian loss data differ to such an extent that there is plenty of room for embellishment.
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On April 30, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that Russia had lost 190 aircraft and 155 helicopters during the war so far. However, Oryx’s independent military analysts estimate Russia’s losses at 26 aircraft and 39 helicopters and 48 drones (UAVs). Russia and Ukraine are very secretive about their losses. Their quantification is difficult, with Ukrainian and Russian planes often crashing on Russian-controlled territory.
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