The Ghost of Kyiv
February 26, 2022 10:20 AM   Subscribe

Netizens have shared clips of a Ukrainian fighter pilot, now being celebrated as “Ghost of Kyiv”, who has allegedly shot down six Russian aircraft. The videos of the “Ghost of Kyiv” have spread like wildfire on social media. Many on Twitter are calling the Ukrainian pilot the “first European ace since World War II”. Many of these videos have already been debunked, but the former Ukraine president wants to believe. Does it even matter if he's real? The ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ Is The Mythical Hero Ukraine Needs Right Now
posted by webmutant (33 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
Does it even matter if he's real?

Fighting Russian disinformation with Ukrainian disinformation makes me queasy, even if such mythology has a tradition.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:47 AM on February 26, 2022 [27 favorites]


I dunno. To me, the Ukrainian statement “perhaps our surprisingly effective air defense has an outsized contribution from a single unnamed hero” seems to fall in a different category of disinformation than the Russian statement “their bigots are killing Russian-speaking children.”
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 10:59 AM on February 26, 2022 [68 favorites]


(With appropriate caveats about my very limited toolset for separating real information from false, about this conflict half a world away between people whose languages I do not speak.)
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 11:01 AM on February 26, 2022


Ukrainian Soldier Blew Up Bridge and Himself to Stop Advance of Russian Troops, Kyiv Says
A Ukrainian servicemember blew himself up to stop Russian tanks from advancing over a bridge out of Crimea, Ukraine’s military says. Vitaly Skakun was part of a marine infantry battalion fighting to fend off a column of Russian tanks at the Henichesk bridge in the Kherson region. The Ukrainian troops had made the decision to blow up the bridge, and Skakun took the initiative to carry out the mission, Ukraine’s General Staff said. “The bridge was mined, but he didn’t manage to get away from there. According to his brothers in arms, Vitaly got in touch [with them] and said he was going to blow up the bridge. Immediately after an explosion rang out,” the military said. Skakun died at the scene but the military hailed him for “significantly slowing down the advancement of the enemy,” which allowed his fellow troops to regroup and deploy defenses. Military commanders said they are working to award Skakun with posthumous honors for his “heroic act.” “Russian occupiers, know that the ground will burn under your feet!” the General Staff said.
Update: Zelensky has honored Vitaly posthumously. Unlike Putin, he sadly won't have to make up fairy tales to find heroes among his people.

SLAVA UKRAINE
posted by adept256 at 11:10 AM on February 26, 2022 [35 favorites]


Vitaly Skakun. The "Go fuck yourself" guy on Snake Island. Today's footage of Kiev women getting together to make Molotov cocktails in a public park. If there's one lesson the past few days' news has taught me it's this: don't pick a fight with Ukraine.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:38 AM on February 26, 2022 [39 favorites]


The naming sense seems to be borrowing from Ace Combat
posted by coolname at 11:51 AM on February 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


The antisemitism animating Putin’s claim to ‘denazify’ Ukraine

This is a Guardian piece explaining the domestic dog whistle Putin is sounding with his nonsensical claims about "denazifying" Ukraine. It's worth reading the whole article, but this is the key par:

By claiming that the aim of the invasion is to “denazify” Ukraine, Putin appeals to the myths of contemporary eastern European antisemitism – that a global cabal of Jews were (and are) the real agents of violence against Russian Christians and the real victims of the Nazis were not the Jews, but rather this group. Russian Christians are targets of a conspiracy by a global elite, who, using the vocabulary of liberal democracy and human rights, attack the Christian faith and the Russian nation. Putin’s propaganda is not aimed at an obviously skeptical west, but rather appeals domestically to this strain of Christian nationalism.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:33 PM on February 26, 2022 [8 favorites]


Where are the Royal Guardsmen when you need them?
posted by unknowncommand at 12:34 PM on February 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


Similar to The Angel of Mons, when a UK newspaper published a short story by Arthur Machen about British soldiers being saved at the battle of Mons by ghostly archers and many saw it as a true account of a supernatural intervention.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:53 PM on February 26, 2022 [6 favorites]


Great article, thanks for sharing. I am devastated by what is going on in Ukraine and terrified for my friends and colleagues there. Stories like these are uplifting and give us some hope. I want to believe in the Ghost of Kyiv.

That said, the information war is in hyper-mode on both sides, so it's wise to take everything with a grain of salt for now. The fog of war is nothing new, but the added dimension of social media will make it even harder to figure out what is going on. Personally, I find the emotional ups and downs hard to take, so I'm checking in on the news once or twice a day to get a snapshot of what's happening, rather than following everything in real time.
posted by rpfields at 2:11 PM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


I'd like to introduce a theory, which I am deriving from an anecdote in Nofi and Dunnigan's book Dirty Secrets of the Vietnam War

During the late 1960s, the USAF began to become afraid of 'Colonel Tomb', supposedly the top NVAF pilot, a man with 29 kills against American and ARVN forces.

It was not until later, that cryptanalysis revealed that the North Vietnamese air traffic controllers were using a code designation for different sectors and deployment vectors. 'Colonel Tomb' was not one aircraft, but rather the designation for one of the CAP patrol regions above Hanoi, namely the one that saw the most combat. Thus it was that 'Colonel Tomb' was not a person, but rather the hottest combat zone of the Vietnam war.

It may be a similar phenomenon taking place: every Mig-29 with Ukrainian livery that sorties over Kyiv is being identified as the public as The Ghost. The Ghost is, in fact, not a one, but a many, brave pilots all, nonetheless, who are flying into air superiority in a desperate attempt to keep their nation's capitol free.

Slava Ukraine! Let the blood of the tyrants water the golden fields of grain!
posted by LeRoienJaune at 2:33 PM on February 26, 2022 [17 favorites]


As far as I’m concerned, the Ghost of Kyiv is in a mountain somewhere in Europe, refueling, rearming, and about to head out to make it an even dozen.
posted by MrGuilt at 3:42 PM on February 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


There is nothing wrong with "I want to believe."
posted by kschang at 4:17 PM on February 26, 2022 [10 favorites]


I want to believe.

I don’t know if this is true, to be clear, but it’s too good not to retell: apparently the joke going around Ukrainian Twitter right now is that in a few days Ukraine will start accepting applications from NATO countries to become part of Ukraine.
posted by mhoye at 4:19 PM on February 26, 2022 [30 favorites]


For a moment, I had in my head a scene from Starship Troopers the movie, except it was various Ukrainian pilots stepping up to the camera, each saying "I am the Ghost of Kyiv".

And it ends with him or her snaps down the black visor over the helmet, closes the cockpit, and takes off on afterburner in a MiG-29. ;)
posted by kschang at 4:23 PM on February 26, 2022


♪ Highway to the danger zone ♪
posted by adept256 at 4:51 PM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus Ghost of Kyiv.
posted by Capt. Renault at 5:28 PM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


The Ghost is, in fact, not a one, but a many, brave pilots all,

Dread Pirate Roberts vibes here. I approve. Never go up against a Silician Ukrainian when death is on the line.
posted by basalganglia at 6:17 PM on February 26, 2022 [6 favorites]


The Ukrainians have produced more quality IP in the last few days than Hollywood has in the century
posted by condour75 at 6:17 PM on February 26, 2022 [11 favorites]


My heart wants to believe in the Ghost so badly that my head can't quite do it. When the legend becomes greater than the story, print the legend.
posted by EatTheWeek at 6:26 PM on February 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


There have been rumors that the Ghost of Kyiv is a woman.

I want to believe.
posted by khrusanthemon at 6:56 PM on February 26, 2022 [6 favorites]




As far as I’m concerned, the Ghost of Kyiv is in a mountain somewhere in Europe, refueling, rearming, and about to head out to make it an even dozen.

I never realized until now that Stringfellow Hawke was Ukrainian.
posted by straight at 8:10 PM on February 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


If there's one lesson the past few days' news has taught me it's this: don't pick a fight with Ukraine.

Skinny Pete:
"If there's one thing I know, it's never to mess with mother nature, mother in-laws and, mother freaking Ukrainians."
posted by Kabanos at 9:34 PM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


even if it's a metaphor for the entire ukrainian air force and not one pilot, it says something. the vaunted russian air force is so disinclined to fight this war for this madman (or is so poorly trained that they literally cannot) that a country with russian equipment from 20 years ago that is vastly outnumbered is able to prevent air supremacy and keep kicking ass with a bunch of fuckin 1990s era mig 29s. these ukrainian pilots have GIANT balls/ovaries.
posted by wibari at 10:23 PM on February 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


I'd like it if if was true - that there's some man or woman up there in the sky just taking out the Russians piece by piece. But even if, as wibari suggests, it's metaphor, it emboldens. It says "We are one! We will not be defeated!" And that's what we're seeing from Ukraine. "Fuck Russia. We'll destroy our own bridges so you don't get near us."
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 12:32 AM on February 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


Similar to The Angel of Mons

I thought of the same phenomenon, and I say the Ghost of Kyiv is at least as real as the Angel of Mons. Long may she fly!
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:58 AM on February 27, 2022


It’s a video game clip.

https://kotaku.com/ghost-kyiv-russia-ukraine-invasion-viral-video-fake-pc-1848598266

“Digital Combat Simulator was a widely released free-to-play flight sim that’s now more than a decade old. Developed by Eagle Dynamics, a company founded in Russia but which is now headquartered in Switzderland, DCS: World’s default map is set in the Caucasus region near Russia, Georgia, and Crimea.

A spokesperson for Eagle Dynamics, Matthias Techmanski, confirmed to Reuters that the fictional video from YouTube spreading like wildfire on social media was indeed from DCS. “We are not responsible for its distribution, nor do we endorse such content,” he said.“
posted by dngrangl at 11:31 AM on February 27, 2022


Similar to The Angel of Mons

Military propaganda doesn't tell us about reality, but does tell us about the mindset of the people making it. When the leadership expects to lose the theme of propaganda might be "we never had a chance so the defeat isn't our fault."

The context of the Angel of Mons myth is British army's desperate 200km long retreat at the beginning of WW1. In that context, the story was spread that a literal angel sent by God himself gave our heroic army a glorious victory (briefly delaying the Germans but hush about that). It's not the sort of myth spread by people who are planning to surrender.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:30 PM on February 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


Interesting Fortean Times piece on the Angel of Mons myth and its intersection with the day's pulp fiction authors here:

Bowmen Of Mons And Mars. DAVID CLARKE ponders the origins of the phantom bowmen imagined by two fantasy authors at the outbreak of the First World War
posted by Paul Slade at 11:20 PM on February 27, 2022


In an interview with a Polish air force general, the journalist and war correspondent Paweł Wroński mentioned that the Ghost of Kyiv is reported as missing in action, and that he has been named as retired Colonel Oleksandr Oksanchenko, a virtuoso fighter pilot and presumably one of the guys in this photo.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:08 AM on February 28, 2022


Ukrainian Soldier Blew Up Bridge and Himself to Stop Advance of Russian Troops, Kyiv Says
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:42 PM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


Ukrainian Air Force pilot Colonel Oleksandr Oksanchenko, reportedly nicknamed “Grey Wolf”, was killed after his jet was shot down near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. According to a post on Facebook by European Airshows page, Oksanchenko lost his life on Friday night when his jet was shot down by Russian S-400 Triumph Air Defence Missile System although this has not been officially confirmed.
He retired from active duty in 2018 but continued to serve as a consultant and trainer but, following the Russian attack on Ukraine, he voluntarily returned to active duty to eventually find death in the skies of Kyiv.
- theaviationist.com
posted by Lanark at 1:36 PM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


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