Legendary ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ who shot down more than 40 Russian aircraft dies in battle
dailystar.co.ukpilot who is rumoured to have shot down over 40 Russian planes has lost his life defending Ukraine, according to local reports.
Major Stepan Tarabalka, dubbed the Ghost of Kyiv, lost his life when the MiG-29 he was flying was shot down while he battled an "overwhelming" amount of enemy forces, mayor of Kolomyia Bogdan Stanislavsky announced.The 29-year-old became a hit cult figure at the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and was understood to have been patrolling the skies above the Ukrainian capital, Mirror reports.The father-of-one is said to have destroyed six Russian aircraft on the first day the invasion began and racked up a whopping total of over 40 by the time he died.
Major Tarabalka rose to fame after the Ukrainian Government shared a video on Twitter, which showed an artist's impression of the fearsome pilot.
The tweet read: "People call him the Ghost of Kyiv. And rightly so — this UAF (Ukrainian Air Force) ace dominates the skies over our capital and country, and has already become a nightmare for invading Russian aircraft."Officials within the Ukrainian Government have insisted the that he was in fact real, despite claims conspiracy theories that he was a myth to boost morale in the country.
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