The Command of the Air Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) gave its feedback on the article, that was published by The Times and stating Major Stepan Tarabalka, the Hero of Ukraine, was a legendary “Ghost of Kyiv”.
“One more time we are asking the Ukrainian community to follow the simple rules of the information hygiene, not to substitute the wish for the reality, to check the information sources before spreading news,” asked the Command of AF.
It states that Stepan Tarabalka, the Hero of Ukraine, is not the “Ghost of Kyiv” and he has not downed 40 planes. On 13 March 2022 Major Stepan Tarabalka died like a hero in the air battle against the overwhelming forces of russian occupiers. The President of Ukraine awarded him posthumously the title Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Golden Star.
“The “Ghost of Kyiv” is a superhero and a legend whose character was created by Ukrainians. That is more a made-up character of the pilots from the 40th brigade of the AF tactic aviation who protect the skies of the capital city. They appear suddenly in the places, they are not expected!” explains the Command of the AF.
The Command also declined the information about training of the military pilots abroad at F-16, “no matter how much we’d like that”, and called the attention to the fact that there are no American bombers in the Ukrainian sky.
The American media stated that the Ukrainian pilot who downed six enemy planes on the first day of the war: Su-27, MiG -29, two Su-35 and two Su-25 as well as later made with his MiG-29 the number of destroyed aggressor’s planes up to forty – is Stepan Tarabalka.