‘Ghost of Kyiv’: Is the mysterious Ukrainian fighter pilot real?

Heroic pilot has supposedly downed six Russian fighter planes – but is he just an urban legend?

Social media has been ablaze with outlandish claims of a pilot known as the “Ghost of Kyiv” who is reportedly traversing the skies and taking down Russian jets – but does the Ukrainian flyer really exist?

A number of videos posted to Twitter showed a jet soaring through the sky, amid speculation the pilot downed six Russian planes on the first day of Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine.

A photo purporting to show the MiG-29 fighter pilot was tweeted on Friday by former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, adding to speculation the exploits might be true.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has also seized on rumours of the flyer’s heroics and tweeted an image of a MiG-29 as part of a post reporting that retired pilots were returning to the air force.

The tweet said: “Who knows, maybe one of them is the air avenger on the MiG-29, which is so often seen by Kyivites!”

The Ukrainian government posted a dramatic 30 second video on its official account saying the flying ace “dominates the skies” and is a “nightmare for invading Russian aircraft”.

However there is a problem with this narrative: it is not certain if the “Ghost of Kyiv” actually exists.

One clip purporting to show the fighter pilot which has already racked up more than 5 million views on social media and showed a MiG-29 has already been debunked as from the 2008 videogame Digital Combat Simulator (DCS).

A recent fact check concluded that the video had been “miscaptioned”. The report concluded: “A vertical video shared online does not show a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane, but comes from the videogame DCS”.

Russian MiG-29 jet fighters take part in an air display (AFP/Getty)

The original footage – which has since been shared on other platforms – was posted to YouTube by a user called “Comrade_Corb”, who put the video up in honour of the “Ghost of Kyiv”.

In the caption of the video he states: “This footage is from DCS, but is nevertheless made out of respect for ‘The Ghost of Kiev’. If he is real, may God be with him; if he is fake, I pray for more like him.”

Aviation experts have also said that claims a fighter pilot could down six planes in a day is doubtful.