As stories go, the one about the Ghost of Kyiv was a good one, too good to be true as most of us likely knew in our gut. On Sunday, the Ukrainian government admitted the ace pilot was a myth but it also said that doesn’t mean he was fake. “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 admission came after numerous outlets reported that a UAF pilot named Maj. Stepan Tarabalka, an actual UAF pilot, was killed in aerial combat on March 13. "The information about the death of the The Ghost of #Kyiv is incorrect,” the UAF said.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ukraine-admits-the-ghost-of-kyiv-is-a-myth