A fearsome fighter pilot rumoured to have shot down more than 40 Russian planes has lost his life defending Ukraine, according to local reports.
Major Stepan Tarabalka, also apparently known as the Ghost of Kyiv, lost his life when the MiG-29 he was flying was shot down while battling "overwhelming" enemy forces, mayor of Kolomyia Bogdan Stanislavsky announced.
The 29-year-old became a cult figure at the beginning of the war and was said to patrol the skies above the Ukrainian capital.
The father-of-one is said to have shot down six Russian aircraft on the day the invasion began and that his total reached over 40 by the time of his death.
Major Tarabalka shot to fame after the Ukrainian Government shared a video on Twitter showing an artist’s impression of the 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."
Senior officials within the Ukrainian Government have insisted that he he was real, despite claims that he was a myth designed to boost morale in the eastern European country.
Several videos claiming to show the Ghost of Kyiv went viral online, despite actually showing aircraft on a video game.
Mayor Stanislavsky said: "Stepan fought for the will and independence of our state. He guarded the sky from enemies.
"Eternal memory and honour to our defender!"
Major Tarabalka was from a working-class family and was born in the small village of Korolivka in western Ukraine, The Times reports.
He graduated from Kharkiv National University of the Air Force. He leaves behind his wife Olenia and their eight-year-old son, Yarik.
Following his death Major Tarabalka was posthumously awarded Ukraine’s top medal for bravery in combat, the Order of the Golden Star, with the title Hero of Ukraine.
His parents gave an interview to NPR during which his mother, Nahtalia, described how he used to watch MiG jets flying over their house when he was a boy.
From that moment on he was determined to become a fighter pilot.
She told the publication via a translator: "He would always watch the paratroopers in their air exercises.
"And he would run in their direction to try to see where they landed.
"Since early childhood, he always dreamed of the sky, about flying higher than the clouds."
Nahtalia said that he would fly over his home village and tilt his wings in a salute after finishing flight school.
Major Tarabalka's father, Evon - a construction worker - said the Ukrainian military would not give them any details of his final flight or his death.
He said: "We know he was flying on a mission. And he completed the mission, his task.
"Then he didn’t return. That’s all the information we have, really."
According to the Ukrainian military Russia has lost 181 fixed wing aircraft, 2,258 armoured vehicles and 21,900 military personnel during the course of the war.
