In Ukraine again there is a viral video on Twitter telling about the Ghost of Kyiv or the Ghost of Kiev. He is the pilot of the mysterious massacre of dozens of Russian fighter jets. What are the facts?
The story of Ghost of Kyiv starts from the official tweet of the Ukrainian government on 27 February 2022 or 3 days after the Russian invasion began on 24 February 2022. This tweet is from the @Ukraine account with a blue tick.
"People call it the Ghost of Kiev. And of course it's true - this ace from the UAF dominates the skies over the capital and country. And it's become a nightmare for Russian planes to invade," said the @Ukraine account.
The tweet included a video of a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian fighter jet. There is a saying that this is the first ace since World War II from an unnamed pilot who flies the MiG-29 nicknamed the Ghost of Kyiv.
Ace is a designation for pilots who have destroyed at least 5 enemy fighter jets. This Kiev ghost is claimed to have destroyed 6 Russian fighter jets in the first 30 hours of the invasion. On February 26, 2022, he claimed to destroy 10 other Russian fighter jets.
The video's tweet went viral on Twitter, was viewed 1.5 million times, got 13,200 retweets, 1,321 quote tweets and 79,800 likes. Netizens' reactions are certainly proud and fiery. Really raises the fighting spirit.
The question is... the ghost of Kiev is real or not? Germany's Deutsche Welle news agency carried out a fact check as reported by us, Friday (4/3/2022).
The result is, the fighter jet video turns out to be from the video game Digital Combat Simulator World. Then another tweet in the form of a photo of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who claimed to be the Ghost of Kyiv turned out to be an old photo of a Ukrainian pilot.
In conclusion, videos and photos on social media claiming to be the Ghost of Kiev are fake. However, is it true that there are ace pilots in the Ukrainian Air Force who downed dozens of Russian fighter jets?
Only the Ukrainian government can answer that. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for information on the pilot's identity from Deutsche Welle. However, there is another tweet from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
"Dozens of experienced military pilots from captains to generals who have been retired have rejoined the Air Force. Who knows, maybe one of them is the MiG-29 pilot who is often watched by the people of Kiev," said the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, referring to the Kiev Ghost.