TheGhost of Kyiv (Ukrainian:Привид Києва,romanized: Pryvyd Kyieva,[1]pronounced[ˈprɪwɪdˈkɪjewɐ]) is the nickname given to amythical[2][3][4]MiG-29 Fulcrumflying ace who was alleged to have shot down sixRussian planes overKyiv during theKyiv offensive on 24 February 2022. The origin of the myth is unclear, but it was propagated widely by both Ukrainian and Western media outlets, as well as official sources such as theArmed Forces of Ukraine and theSecurity Service of Ukraine. The Ghost of Kyiv has been credited as amorale booster for Ukrainians during theRusso-Ukrainian War.
Two months after the story spread, theUkrainian Air Force acknowledged that it was not factual, and warned people not to "neglect the basic rules of information hygiene" and to "check the sources of information, before spreading it".[2][5][6] Experts have stated that stories such as Ghost of Kyiv are part ofUkrainian propaganda or a morale-boosting campaign, or potentially both.[7][8][9]
On 24 February 2022,Russia began a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in an escalation ofa pre-existing war between the two countries. During theKyiv offensive, which began on the first day of the invasion, videos onsocial media began widely circulating offighter jets in Ukraine shortly after the invasion started, including claims of a pilot who took down multiple Russian jets.[10][11] The claim that aMiG-29 pilot nicknamed the "Ghost of Kyiv" who won six air fights in the skies ofKyiv appeared during the first 30 hours of the invasion.[1][12] The six planes were reported as twoSu-35s, twoSu-25s, anSu-27, and an enemy MiG-29.[13][14][15] If the flying ace had existed, they would have been the first recorded fighter ace of the 21st century.[16]
TheUkrainian Ministry of Defence claimed that—would the shoot-downs be confirmed—the Ghost of Kyiv could be one of the dozens of experienced pilots of the military reserve who returned to theArmed Forces of Ukraine after Russia invaded.[17] In atweet, it referred to the Ghost of Kyiv as "the air avenger".[18] However, Ukrainian commander-in-chiefValerii Zaluzhnyi said he could only confirm a total of six Russian planes downed on the first day of fighting in Ukraine, though there may have been more.[12]
Former Ukrainian presidentPetro Poroshenko posted a tweet of a photograph of a fighter pilot, falsely claiming it to be the Ghost of Kyiv.[19][20][21] The photo was later found to be an unrelated image from aMinistry of Defense post from 2019.[21] On 27 February, theSecurity Service of Ukraine said in aFacebook post that the Ghost of Kyiv had shot down 10 aircraft.[22] By March 2, official sources had confirmed neither an individual identity nor an official record for the rumored pilot.[23]
A day later, however,The Times reported that a Ukrainian military source said the pilot was real and still alive.[24] The Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook the purported pilot in his helmet with the visor up with the caption: "Hello, occupier, I'm coming for your soul!"[25]
Military.com stated that the Ghost of Kyiv was "almost certainly amyth, albeit an incredibly useful one as Ukraine tries to rally its citizens to resist Russian conquest".[26]Newsweek wrote that the Ghost of Kyiv was "very likely not real, but instead, an imaginary hero designed to bolster Ukrainians' morale in the face of the Russian invasion," adding that "there is zero evidence the 'Ghost of Kyiv' exists with Ukrainian authorities not confirming their existence".[12]
Reexaminations have characterized the Ghost of Kyiv as a part of a larger "information war" to counter the Russian invasion.[27]Task & Purpose andThe Times of Israel have described the Ghost of Kyiv as a narrative that's an element ofUkraine's resistance.[28][27]
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The persona is based on confirmed downing of Russian planes, assigned to one heroic figure.[29]
On 30 April 2022,Ukraine's Air Force Command admitted the mythical status of the Ghost of Kyiv: "The ghost of Kyiv is asuperhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians,"[2] adding that "the #GhostOfKyiv is alive, it embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots".[30]
In early 2024, Ukraine Ground Forces spokesperson Illia Yevlash admitted that the pilot is fictional and was created by his team after Ukrainian Force showed repeated ability to down Russian planes:
During abrainstorming session, it seems to me that Volodymyr Fityo (Ukrainian Ground Forces Spokesperson) suggested calling him "The Ghost of Kyiv." Everyone supported the idea. Later the news agencies, the United News Telemarathon, spread the info. We wrote a post about him twice, and then "The Ghost" began to live [on] his own.[29]
Serhiy Cherevat, spokesman for the Eastern UAF Group, pointed out that the men "create[d] the image of an avenger, anational hero, a flying ace destroying the enemy aircraft."[29]
An anonymous Ukrainian military expert toldBBC that the myth helped "raise morale at a time when people need simple stories", while the Air Force Command warned people to not "neglect the basic rules of information hygiene" and to "check the sources of information, before spreading it".[2][5][6] The statement came after multiple media outlets published stories wrongly identifying MajorStepan Tarabalka as the man behind the moniker. Tarabalka was a pilot who died on 13 March 2022 during air combat against Russian aircraft and was posthumously awarded the titleHero of Ukraine.[31]
In an interview on June 8, addressing the Ghost of Kyiv myth specifically, Ukrainian government advisor Liubov Tsybulska indicated the importance of avoiding the use of disinformation while acknowledging that mistakes may sometimes happen. She emphasized that the Ukrainian government was "capable of having lessons learned" and further expressed the most important thing was that the misinformation was acknowledged and removed.[32]
After Ukrainian fighter pilotAndrii Pilshchykov died on 25 August 2023, it was revealed that the original photo which purported to show the Ghost of Kyiv, shared by Poroshenko and spread by the media, showed Pilshchykov, who was also one of the original creators of the "Ghost of Kyiv" myth.[33]
Despite the Ghost of Kyiv being anurban legend or instance of warpropaganda, the pilot's alleged existence has been credited as a majormorale boost for the Ukrainian population by bolstering optimism during the Russian invasion.[10][34][35] The story was widely shared by Ukrainians on social media[12][18] and eventually came to be treated by some as acomposite character metaphorically representing the actions of the entireUkrainian air force.[36][37]
Computer-generated footage of the Ghost of Kyiv winning adogfight was made using the 2013 video gameDigital Combat Simulator and uploaded by aYouTube user. The uploader stated in the description that the footage was not real and was merely atribute, urging the Ghost of Kyiv, real or fake, to keep fighting. The video was subsequently shared by the officialTwitter account of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.[12] The videowent viral on social media, althoughSnopes noted that the circulating video was miscaptioned.[38][39][40] Similar to the Ghost of Kyiv, on 26 February 2022, social media reports emerged of aUkrainian army soldier dubbed the "Ukrainian Reaper", who supposedly killed over twenty Russian soldiers in combat alone.[41]
Task & Purpose argued that while it was highly unlikely there were even six air-to-air takedowns in total, given their rarity in the 21st century and Ukraine's strong missile defense, the Ghost of Kyiv was "real enough" as the spirit of the Ukrainians.[34] Tom Demerly ofThe Aviationist argued that the Ghost of Kyiv is an "example of bizarre distortions ... amplified by the chaos of war".[42]
Ukraine's Ministry of Defence has revealed the identity of the "Ghost of Vinnytsia" who had replaced the "Ghost of Kyiv", which turned out to be propaganda, in a Twitter post
The pilot has not been officially identified and his record has not been confirmed by official sources.
A Ukrainian military source said that a MiG-29 pilot nicknamed the Ghost of Kyiv, who was claimed to have shot down six Russian planes on the first day of the invasion, was real and was still alive. It was not clear whether he was involved in the dogfight yesterday.
The commanders approved this idea as trolling the Russians, who said they had destroyed all the aviation on the first day of the war. And Andrii, who had such a caustic trolling style, said: "And here we are on the very planes that they destroyed, which are not there – we are fighting them so much. And who are we? Ghosts!"
Regardless, the pilot has become a folk hero amid the bloodshed and the term has been adopted to refer to the entire Ukrainian air force.
As a result, the term by which this pilot has been called has been adopted to name the entire Ukrainian air force.
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