On Sunday the Ukrainian Air Force command confirmed what many had suspected about the “Ghost of Kyiv”, an unnamed fighter pilot credited with dozens of kills against Russian aircraft since February, posting on Facebook that the ace was a propaganda invention, the BBC reports. “Ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend whose character was created by Ukrainians! We ask the Ukrainian community not to neglect the basic rules of information hygiene,” said the post.

The fictional ace was reminiscent of the Canadian World War II-era fighter pilot George Beurling, aka the “Knight of Malta”, who canceled at least 27 German and Italian birds over 14 days during the Nazi siege of the Mediterranean island in 1942, which was then a British colonial outpost. Beurling’s exploits were made very much public by the UK, parading him around on war bond drives, during which he was quite open and honest about how much he enjoyed killing people.

Hard to think the Ghost would not have been publicly elevated in a similar fashion had he been real, especially considering the Ukrainian military’s praise of the “Russian Warship, go fuck yourself” guy, Roman Hrybov. Also a legend from the very earliest stages of the war, when everyone thought Ukraine was doomed to a valiant but ultimately swift and savage loss, Hrybov’s very real defiance boosted the nation’s morale and steeled them to resist Putin’s onslaught. It’s understandable Ukrainian leadership would want to play a little loose with the facts about the Ghost if it helped, for even just a little bit, make the difference between life and death for their nation.

Which makes this asshole’s whining that much more enjoyable:

It’s amazing how Western propaganda tries to save face of #Ukraine calling apparent lie “a modern legend” needed to boost morale. There are no moral principles for Kiev and Western propagandists, nothing to boost! 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 #Propaganda #GhostOfKyiv https://t.co/wu3owjwdV8 pic.twitter.com/BsQB620mQo

— Dmitry Polyanskiy 🇺🇳 (@Dpol_un) May 1, 2022

We could go on a while about the “bioweapons” and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine and the “ethnic cleansing” but it’s better to just bask in the glow of what goes around coming around.

Russian propagandist, go fuck yourself.