According to the British daily, the mythical pilot of the Ukrainian army whose existence has been questioned would be Major Stepan Tarabalka. His death in combat was announced in March.
Within hours he had become a national hero. The “Ghost of Kyiv,” the mysterious Ukrainian fighter pilot who shot down six Russian planes on the first day of the war, died in a dogfight last March, Ukrainian sources tell British daily The Times.
Also read The strange story of the “Ghost of Kyiv”, this pilot who set Ukrainian hopes on fire
It would be Major Stepan Tarabalka who died on March 13 after his Mig-29 was shot down. On March 25, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry tweeted to announce the death of this “Hero of Ukraine,” but without specifying that it was the “ghost of Kyiv.” Ukrainian authorities credit him with more than 40 downed Russian planes.
Tributes are flowing on social media in memory of this helmeted man who has become the likeness of several flags and the inspiration for various songs. The Ukrainians sometimes called the pilot “hero”, sometimes “guardian angel”, whose identity was kept secret for a long time. So much so that there were doubts about its real existence.
The “Ghost of Kyiv” got its nickname from a tweet by former President Petro Poroshenko, who on February 25 shared a photo of a face hidden under a helmet with the mention “Der Geist von Kyiv” (the ghost of Kyiv) “terrifies enemies and makes Ukraine proud”. But the publication of this same photo began long before the Russian invasion the Twitter account of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in 2019 questions raised. The same observation regarding the ministry’s shared video of a fighter plane that Reuters said would actually be from a video game. On March 11, the Ukrainian army staff posted a new photo on its Facebook account of the “ghost” who was out hunting the Russian invader.
Despite continuing to cast doubt on the myth, “Ukrainian sources have remained adamant” about the pilot’s “authenticity,” says the Times in its article published this Friday, April 29. The 29-year-old was posthumously awarded the Order of the Golden Star, Ukraine’s highest award for bravery in battle, and the title of Hero of Ukraine.
The Times reports the testimony of the pilot’s parents who, in an interview granted a few days after their son’s death, said they had no information about the circumstances surrounding his death. “We know he flew on a mission. And he has fulfilled his mission, his task. Then he didn’t come back. That’s pretty much all the information we have,” they explain, before talking about the times when “every time he had the chance he would fly near our house and do a little aerobatic trick. And everyone in the village, every house and all the surrounding villages knew that it was Stepan who stole.”
Also readWar in Ukraine: Is Russia Kiev’s ‘best arms supplier’?
Stepan Tarabalka was married and had one child. Ukrainian sources contacted by the Times said his helmet and goggles would soon be auctioned in London, without giving further details.
SEE ALSO – Who is the “Butcher of Syria”, the Russian general commanding Ukraine?