For many months, the Ukrainians imagined that a mysterious pilot was protecting the capital, Kiev, with his MiG-29 plane, and everyone was inclined to believe that, although no one knew the face of this knight of the sky, so is it, in fact, just a fantasy?
This is what the French magazine "Le Point" tried to explain through a report on the legend of the hero of Kiev, which began from the first day of the war on February 24, 2022. According to accounts caught on social networks, this pilot was able to shoot down 3 enemy planes and two helicopters. He shot down his MiG-29 on the first day, then shot down 10, 15 and 20 in the following days, some even recording an accurate list of his exploits.
The exploits of the "Ghost of Kiev" have been transmitted hundreds of thousands of times on Ukrainian social networks - says the magazine's special envoy, Romain Goubert - accompanied by the exploits of the Ukrainian Coast Guard, which is said to have sunk the Russian cruiser "Moscow" on the first day of the war, although it was not It only sinks weeks later.
And in the depths of the cellars, the Ukrainians exchange clips to glorify this exceptional pilot and pictures that may have been taken from a video game - as the reporter says - so that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko published a picture of him with the "ghost", without saying that he had re-published an old picture of him with one of the pilots. When he was in office between 2014 and 2019.
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However, the Air Force seemed more embarrassed, as it glorifies the ghost on the Facebook page, but its spokesman asks to be vigilant and not neglect the basic rules of information before broadcasting it. As for the Ukrainian intelligence, it published congratulations to the "Ghost of Kiev" after it shot down 10 planes in one day, and the advisor President Volodymyr Zelensky saluted the ghost, saying, "This hero has become a nightmare for the invading Russian planes."
Last April, the Ukrainian press believed that it had found the ghost, which is Stepan Tarapalka (29 years old), but the Air Force, which confirmed the death of this pilot who holds the medal of the Hero of Ukraine, denied that he was the "ghost", to announce a few weeks later the fall of another "ghost". With a Russian missile, and his name was revealed, he is the commander of the 40th Brigade squadron, Colonel Mikhalo Matyushenko (60 years old), and Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him the highest honor in the country.
Finally the Air Force lifted the secret, announcing that there had never been a "ghost", but several ghosts, and explained that no pilot had shot down 40 planes alone, but rather the pilots of the main military air base in Kiev, who had only a few planes. It was they who created this legend, "It is a heroic mass build-up of the pilots who defend Kiev."