Bravery vs Recklessness

Let us call a spade a spade and alleged Ukrainian bravery for what it is

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Welcome to the peace initiative for Ukraine in which you can contibute by raising your awareness as well as your consciousness^[+] and spirit to the modes^[+] of neutrality^[*^], decency, respectfulness, wisdom^[*^], objectivity, mastery of the intellect, surrender (ego and mind to God’s will), and finally peace (inner then outer). To properly grasp everything, we recommend reading the articles of this peace initiative in the order that we^[*^] designed it, which is listed in the Contents. So if you haven’t read the previous articles, we urge you to do it, please. Did you read the this “Reality Checks” segment from the beginning? Please, do so for a better grasp of the topic of this article: The Real Beginning of the War in Ukraine.

In the previous article Zelensky – Hero or Villain?, we wrote about the subject of heroism, which involves the virtue of bravery, let us extend this topic beyond Ukrainian President Zelensky to Ukrainian people, who are often portrayed as being extremely brave, which is not true. We need to expose all falsehoods or misrepresentations that are standing in the way of our peace initiative when they are deliberately propagandized to push the war effort rather than peace. As already stated, our job is to provide facts, not to help create legends.

This is not to undermine anyone's true bravery but to shed light on the reality behind the propaganda so that all of us could act based on that rather than on the false pretense about alleged brave Ukrainians who are advertised as willing to fight till death as long as we give them what they need: weapons, ammunition, and cash.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen on 24/02/2024^[»]: “You saved your country. You saved all of Europe. And today we are here from across Europe and the world to pay tribute to your bravery.”

There have been many fake narratives about Ukrainian bravery, which indicates the lack of bravery – why fake the stories and not use the real ones? Ghost of Kyiv^[+][»][+], Snake Island Heroes^{[+][+][+][+][+]} and fictious Battle of Kyiv (2022)¹^[+] that were widely reported by mainstream Western media outlets and heralded as a testament to Ukrainian military bravery turned out to be a media hoax^[+] For instance, on Snake Island, Ukrainian guards did not “heroically die rather than surrendered” but turned up alive as Russian captives^[+]. Those “brave” soldiers surrendered after all! Still, they gave them medals after prisoners exchange as yet another PR stunt. Just sad.

In Western media, there is much talk about Ukrainian bravery, which is a virtue only when it is based on sane military logic rather than drug use, psychosis, insanity, madness, irrationality, stupidity, delusion, hatred, or any other ego-driven destructive rather than constructive modes of consciousness. Bravery without intelligence is recklessness, which is a flaw rather than a virtue. Recklessness, as with any other flaw, leads to failure. Case in point – Bakhmut/Artyomovsk. Unintelligent one-sided perspective can be fatal, nevertheless, it is prevalent among Ukrainians, sadly.

Other dark sides of unattended or mindless bravery are audacity, insolence, overconfidence, presumptuousness, and other such low modes of consciousness that are destructive rather than constructive, causing failures rather than successes.

Maybe the funniest case of Kyiv propaganda in which they attempted to show how their militants are very brave and courageous is this video^[»] where oops, the camera person got into the shot, exposing it all being staged! Some Oscar-worthy actors serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine!

The fact that Ukraine had a need to create a PR campaign “Be Brave Like Ukraine”^[+] is already in and of itself dubious enough but the fact that it did not catch anyone's fancy let alone inspire has then sealed it as a vain attempt to assert themselves as something they are not. The conceited President of Ukraine Zelensky claimed that Ukrainians have always been the bravest in the world. That surely did not go down well with many brave foreigners. According to him^[+], this is the brand of his people. As it turns out, it was all just a PR stunt and no one was really buying it.

“If everyone in the world had at least ten percent of the courage that we Ukrainians have, there would be no danger to international law at all. There would be no danger to the freedom of the nations. We will spread our courage. We will start a special global campaign. We will teach the world to be not just a little bit, but full of courage. Like us, like Ukrainians.” –  cocky as the king of spades Volodymyr Zelensky

What? Did he just thumb his nose at all the other brave people of the world or that came out wrong? Not cute. Is this a joke? Often, it is unclear if hyped-up Zelensky is doing a public speech or a stand-up comedy or whether he keeps babbling nonsense or bragging because he is so vain or just cuckoo. Ukrainians have yet to live up to “the bravest in the world” status, but where is this teaching the world to be full of courage? Mr. the Draft-Dodger and his nation filled with losers, draft-dodgers^{[»][+][+][»]}, fugitives, deserters^{[»][+][+][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][+][+][+][+][»][»]}, corrupt officials^{[+][+][+][»][+][»][+][+][ꚛ][+][+][»][»][+]}, crooks, and neo-Nazis, who can't even get the courage to face the reality are supposed to teach us courage? Hilarious. Surely there are some brave and nice people in Ukraine but just in any other country and surely, Ukraine is not a role-model for it or anything else, really.

If Ukrainian soldiers are so brave and great, why Ukrainian people disrespect them? There are many cases such as these two^[»][»], where soldier complain how people react badly or disrespectfully to them on the streets.

If Ukrainian soldiers are so brave and great, why according to this amputated soldier^[»], every soldier wishes to lose his leg below the knee just to go home, why everybody wants to go home? Another hole in this “brave Ukrainians” narrative!

If Ukrainian soldiers are so brave and great, why masses of them either deserted^[»] or surrendered?

Kyiv doesn’t release the official number of soldiers who’ve gone AWOL but some high officials, such as a Ukrainian MP, estimated^[+][+] the number to be over 200.000 soldiers by the end of 2024 similar to Ukrainian media report of the total number of deserters in Ukraine reaching 170.000 in late October 2024. In comparison, Russian courts processed at least 10.000 cases against runaway soldiers by August 2024, as reported by the Mediazona^[+]. By the end of 2024, Ukraine opened over 100.000^[+][+][+] criminal cases against servicemen who abandoned their positions since 2022 but the number of deserters is estimated to be much higher, at least twice as many, as many commanders do not report desertions^[+] due to one of two main reasons – to avoid the punishment or disgrace as they are held responsible for their units and to pocket the salaries of those soldiers. And importantly, desertion in Ukrainian army is on the rise as the number of deserters in 2024 was six times (600%) higher than in 2022^[v]. Ukrainian army faces a “desertion crisis” – The Guardian^[+]. NATO propaganda justifies the huge numbers of desertions with the excuses such as exhaustion or family issues covering up the true reasons such as that most deserters are the guys who were unwilling to fight to start with as they were kidnapped from the streets and forced to join the military, or those disillusioned ones who while taking a leave shockingly witnessed how others are enjoying their life in Kyiv as if there was no war.

We should not confuse bravery with being desperate or coerced. There are countless videos of Ukrainian POWs revealing the realities among the Ukrainian ranks. They talk about how they as soldiers were left with no choice but to hold positions and fight because their commanders threatened to kill them or terrorize them into compliance to serve as cannon fodder or meat for meatgrinder. So, this has nothing to do with being brave but with being bullied and forced to go on suicide missions. Thousands surrender^[+] while others die before they get a chance to surrender. Imagine how desperate these people here^[»] must be to flee Ukraine if they’re willing to throw themselves onto barbed wire while running away from the military kidnappers (“recruiters”).

We should not confuse bravery with seeking fame. Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, told^[+] Politico that he and Zelensky rally citizens and soldiers for the fight by telling them: “Your name will be in the history books.” This is how these two vanity-driven former showbiz guys, popularity-seekers themselves, persuade other fame-seeking fools to be cannon fodder for war profiteers in a NATO’s proxy war^[*^][+]. What they omit to tell those peasant glory-hunters is the fact that history is written by the victors and Russia will surely not put their name in the history books. Not that Ukrainian authorities would do it anyway with over a million of names fighting. What is more astonishing is that they do not even try to motivate people by telling them tales of patriotic duty, as obviously such pep talk does not work. People seem to be more interested to be in the history books than to defend their country.

We should also not confuse bravery with a high pain threshold. Slavic folks (that have Slavic blood and identity) prefer to suffer than capitulate to external pressure. Slavs have a higher pain threshold than Americans, for instance, but Ukrainians are so Americanized^[»] (or identify themselves rather with Anglo-Saxons², including German Nazis and Nazi collaborators such as Stepan Bandera, who were losers) that they lost much of their ability to withstand pain and fearlessness, save for maybe those who identify themselves with Vikings (sporting the trident coat of arms that was taken from former Ukrainian rulers, the Viking Rurik Dynasty). NATO leaders such as unelected EU President and German lawbreaker^[+], plagiarist^[+] gynecologist-turned-president Ursula von der Leyen^[+] (a member of the board of trustees^[+] of WEF³), EU Council President Charles Michel from Belgium, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, Joe Biden, UK's King Charles and Prince Harry, Pope Francis, and other members of Western ruling elites or high society, who rarely had to deal with much pain in life while living privileged lives, confuse high pain tolerance of many Ukrainians with bravery. For upper classes, anyone who endures more pain than they ever had to bear is by definition brave. Those jet setters, born with a silver spoon, never did anything remotely courageous, bold, or daring. Frankly, from their perspective, if compared to them, we are all brave.

We should also not confuse bravery with drug-induced behavior.

When a Ukrainian commando team was captured by Russia in August 2023, seeking to conduct sabotage operations in Russia’s Bryansk Region, a Ukrainian POW was telling how they are given marijuana and amphetamine all the time so that they do not feel pain and fear, as evidenced in this video^[»]. This is how they are drugged into going on suicidal missions.

In January 2024, The Economist run an article^[+] titled “A new therapy for Ukraine’s scarred soldiers: ketamine” where they wrote about how psychedelic drugs such as ketamine help Ukrainian soldiers to overcome trauma and fight. They openly admit how they are turning their soldiers into drug-addicts and even call it a “therapy” as if that is a good thing. A Ukrainian military psychologist told reporters that ketamine keeps Ukrainians fighting more effectively and for longer and that Ukraine should be using psychedelics more to improve battle performance. The notion of using psychoactive drugs to help soldiers fight raises troubling moral issues. Wonder how would they spin the narrative if they found out Russian soldiers took drugs to fight.

Łukasz Kamienski, a Polish expert in the military use of substances, explained^[+] how soldiers use drugs “to boost their performance, to fight fatigue and stay awake during continuous military operations, to suppress pain and hunger or even just to survive in a harsh siege.” However, the NATO propaganda outlets want us to believe that it is Russians, not Ukrainians, who are using drugs and alcohol (“Russian troops are battling high and drunk”^[+]), which begs the question then, if this is true, how come are then such brave Ukrainian soldiers not able to defeat those alleged drunkards and junkies?

As reported not by Ukrainian but Russian soldiers, they are witnessing the peculiarity of the Ukrainian soldiers, without exaggeration, that seems to them as some kind of psychotropic⁴ substances at play. As reported by perplexed Russians^[+], Ukrainian soldiers are walking at full height along the road on which the corpses of their comrades lie, and calmly go around them. As shells fire at them just meters away, they continue to move without accelerating a single step and without even once bending their heads – too much for Russian normal understanding of what is happening. This is surely not how brave guys behave but numb and insensitive ones.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has also reported^[+] on this issue, such as in April 2022, providing evidence on drug trafficking and manufacturing there stating that “Ukraine already has one of the highest prevalence in the world of people who inject drugs”. They recorded an increase in injecting stimulants (methamphetamine) and new psychoactive substances (NPS) stimulants. There is surely drug use on both sides but the point we are making here is not who is doing it more but not to confuse it with bravery. However, there are many reports about Russian soldiers not being allowed to take alcohol and drugs, which means they are not given any of it by their commanders or medics as is the case in Ukrainian armed forces.

And talking about role models of “bravery” in Ukraine, we must take into account a draft-dodging son of the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (who started the whole war in eastern Ukraine in 2014). Oleksii Poroshenko^[+] (whose wife and kids bravely live abroad, not in Ukraine), has reportedly^{[+][+][+][+][+][+]} flouted mobilization law and ignored multiple conscription notices. So, former President Poroshenko (2014–2019), a renown Bandera fan (read: a neo-Nazi), who also intends^[+] to run for presidency again, supports the mobilization law whereby sons of others must go to war but not his own son – how brave and what an exemplary behavior!

How misplaced was NATO's faith in Ukrainians’ bravery was reported by the Wall Street Journal^[+]: “When Ukraine launched its big counteroffensive this spring, Western military officials knew Kyiv didn’t have all the training or weapons—from shells to warplanes—that it needed to dislodge Russian forces. But they hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day. They haven’t.”

Unfortunately, the highest form of Ukrainian bravery comes in the form of daring to speak in favor of Russia and Putin, which is unfortunate because in 21^st-century Ukraine one has to be brave to speak freely because of the level of violations of human rights to free speech in Ukraine is so immense and horrendous that the brutal SBU and civilians are free to take justice into their own hands and carry out extrajudicial punishments by torturing anyone who says anything against the Kyiv narrative. Even the US State Department Report in 2022 on Human Rights Practices in Ukraine^[+] reported about unlawful or arbitrary killings, forced disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest or detention, restrictions on freedom of expression, unjustified arrests or prosecutions, crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of ethnic minority groups... Also, the OHCHR⁵ documented the pervasive use of extrajudicial punishment, which included tying individuals to trees^{[»][»][»][»]}, lampposts^{[ꚛ][ꚛ][»][ꚛ][ꚛ][»]}, or electricity poles in public areas^{[»][+][»][ꚛ]}, stripping them, and sometimes beating them^[»][ꚛ]. Ukrainian public officials in some regions encouraged the extrajudicial punishments, and some National Police officers and members of the Territorial Defense Forces reportedly took part in the abuse.

One such example of bravery, surely not the best one but heartbreaking, is this Ukrainian old lady^[»] who was reduced to tears while being interrogated by the police intimidating her with a rifle but she bravely spoke her mind praising Putin to be sent from God. Some commentators^[+] praised her for being “braver than every Ukrainian they’ve dragged to the front” and such.

Unfortunately, another highest form of Ukrainian bravery comes in the form of the resistance against the Kyiv regime and the real heroes of Ukraine are common women^[»] who are attacking military recruiters so as to help kidnapped civilians escape from forced mobilization during the actual kidnapping acts.

We can say that in general, all soldiers who fight in wars are brave, which makes Ukrainian soldiers no better than all the others, including Russian soldiers. Although we understand the need of the Western propaganda machine to praise the Ukrainian soldiers for their bravery or whatever just to boost their morale because their morale is very low^{[»][»][+][+][»][»][»][»][»]} due to obvious failures on the battlefields, we don't approve of boosting morale with lies.

One of many examples how Ukrainian soldiers are not brave but cowardly and all about PR stunts are the highly-famed Azov Brigade militants (consisting mostly of neo-Nazis^{[+][+][+][+][+][+][+][ꚛ][+][»][»][»][»][»][ꚛ] [»][ꚛ]}), who have distinguished themselves by their particular cruelty and extremely high level of Russophobia and motivation to fight against the Russians – there is a notable lack of evidence showcasing their bravery while there is plenty of evidence of their cowardice, such as surrendering or fleeing during critical moments when courage was expected – they surrendered^[+] en masse in Mariupol and cowardly refused to defend some towns like Avdeevka^[+][+][+] and Chasov Yar^[+][+][+], despite having the opportunity to display valor. As cowards, despite being armed with the most advanced weapons by NATO, they fail to perform as they lose every battle, such as in Mariopol, Bakhmut, Avdeevka, Chasov Yar. Since December 2023, the Azov brigade that branched into 3^rd Assault Brigade^[+] has been staying in the rear areas in Kramatorsk rather than bravely engaging in efforts to liberate occupied villages and towns – this further exposes them for favoring safety over heroism. After Azov, the 47th Mechanized Brigade is the most overhyped Ukrainian brigade in this entire war. They got the best equipment and they have accomplished what exactly? They lost all battles and got hammered as shown in this horrendous incident^[»] in June 2023. Is this why they glorify them as brave heroes to motivate them to keep up the fight when all odds are against them? It is amazing what some empty validation can do to boost men’s ego and their will to go on.

There is much more evidence exposing how unbrave Ukrainian soldiers are than there are the ones showcasing their bravery. Such evidence is flooding the internet, like this soldier^[»] falling into hysteria and stupor on the battlefield being helped to flee rather than fight. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who deserted^{[»][+][+][+][+][+]} the army.

There is overwhelmingly much more video evidence of Ukrainian faintheartedness and cowardice rather than bravery – besides all those videos with soldiers moaning about this and that, there are thousands of videos of Ukrainian POWs who surrendered^[+] rather than fought, or refused to follow orders and fight^[»][»]. Also, the fact that there are much, much more Ukrainian POWs who surrendered to Russian forces than vice versa, it is safe to conclude that if Ukrainians are surrendering more than Russians are, this means that Russians are much braver than Ukrainians but no mention of that fact in the Western propaganda outlets, let alone in Kyiv ones.

And then there are thousands of videos showing not-so-brave draft dodgers^{[»][»][»][»ꚛ][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»]} resisting drafting officers who kidnap them to join the army, not to mention all the guys who managed to flee the country^[+], are hiding at homes^[»][+] or bribing military commissars^[+] and doctors^[+][+] to get the certificates that they are not fit to join the military (by September 2023, 163.000^[+] military-age men bribed officials or forged documents to flee to Germany, around 80.000^[+] men to Poland and who knows how many to all other countries, almost 20.000^[+] draft dodgers have been captured attempting to flee by illegally crossing the borders or with forged documents but who knows how many were not captured) as well as those who enrolled into universities to avoid mobilization (according to the results of the Ukrainian universities’ admission campaigns^[+], in 2022, about 85.000 men of military age entered universities, and in 2023 their number increased to 110.000; the number of new male students aged 30+ has increased 23 times during the first two years of full-scale war compared to the pre-war years), etc.

In early December 2023, The Telegraph reported^[+] based on Eurostat data that 650.000 conscription-age men had fled Ukraine and that's not included all those who are there in hiding (unreported). The same month, Zelensky revealed the number of Ukrainian soldiers fighting against Russia at that time: nearly 600.000 troops^[+][+] (the majority of them noncombat support roles; their direct frontline combat troop amounted to around 200-250.000 at most) – so, this means that more men fled than fight, therefore it is false to generally call Ukrainian men “brave”. At the same time, German MP, warmonger Kiesewetter said^[+] there were 200.000 Ukrainian refugees in Germany alone who are eligible for enlistment, urging chancellor Scholz to assist Ukraine’s government in its bid to get some of them to return. In mid-January 2024, Estonian MEP said^[»][»] in a EU Parliament session that there are 800.000 military-age Ukrainians whom he called “cowards who illegally escaped from Ukraine to Europe breaking Ukrainian laws” – it turns out, there are more cowards then brave men in Ukraine. He was calling the Parliament to deport them all back to Ukraine to fight the NATO proxy war^[*^][+] against Russia (he failed to mention the “NATO proxy” part).

Btw, how is this not a crime to force people to go to war and die for a regime they do not approve of?! Don’t these people have human rights?!

Zelensky is forcibly capturing 30.000 civilian men a month like dogs off the street^{[»][»][»][»][ꚛ][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»][»]} to force them into fighting in his war, meanwhile in Russia 50.000-60.000 Russian volunteers are joining the army of their own free will^[»]. This clearly shows how Russian men are much more brave than Ukrainian. Other than just once in 2022, Russia has had no need for mobilization because Russian men join the army voluntarily while Ukraine, on the other hand, has constant need to forcefully mobilize men. In 2014–2015, Ukraine had six distinct mobilization waves (three in each year) while since 2022, there is ongoing general mobilization^[+][+] – by the end of 2024, the Ukrainian Parliament had approved 13 presidential decrees extending both martial law and general mobilization.

There is no footage that we know of proving the extraordinary bravery of any Ukrainian soldier, although surely there must have been some exceptionally brave warriors (not just reckless ones) who heroically (not under drug influence) stormed Russian positions. For that reason of not having any real, verifiable heroes, the Ukrainian propaganda machine had to invent stories or lie about fake heroes such as a pilot nicknamed as “the Ghost of Kyiv”^[+][»][+] and alleged brave refusal of the guards on Snake Island^[»] to surrender which turned out to be faked as they did indeed surrender to the Russian navy^[+][+] (the guy who allegedly refused to surrender was released from captivity a month later in a prisoners exchange and then given a medal^[+] – what for? He did surrender. A medal for mere words of cursing?). With the lack of true heroes, Ukrainian authorities had to honor some other fake heroes who were in fact losers, like Azov commanders who failed to defend Mariupol as they not just lost the battle but surrendered and were taken prisoners. If people get medals for losing battles and surrendering, it is a clear sign that Ukraine desperately lacks true heroes.

If you still believe Ukraine is winning due to Ukrainians being braver than Russians, go buy a Ghost of Kyiv⁶ T-shirt and keep dreaming. Otherwise, get the courage to face the reality and brace yourself for the inevitable turn of events in Russia's favor. Ukraine would be better off if it aligned itself with fellow Eastern Slavs and distanced itself from the NATO bloc. This way, by switching sides, they would win this war with Russia against NATO predators (wolves in sheep's clothing).

Like the Chechens switched sides – they used to fight against Russia and Putin defeated them but are now the staunchest supporters of Putin and fiercest fighters for Russia. Or like the Japanese after the WWII – Americans nuked them but they are nevertheless supporting Americans to this day. So will Ukrainians eventually turn around when all this is over and will be Russian supporters.

Russian bravery, on the other hand, is in general mostly based on sane military logic. Unlike reckless Ukrainians, they rather withdraw than risk too many lives (case in point – Kharkiv and Kherson). There is bravery in withdrawal^[+], too. It takes enormous courage to go against the expectations of others (enemies), resist the need to show off, withstand own ego, be humble, cultivate humility at times, and use logic or levelheadedness instead of wishful thinking, overconfidence, or presumptuousness.

That said, Russia has also proven real bravery in tank battles, as evidenced in video footage^{[»][»][»][»][»]}. See also here^[»][»][»] a couple of examples of tank crews getting hit on the battlefield but kept going on (as opposed to retreating in fear or for repair) but this is also a frequent feat by the Ukrainians, which proves that they are equally brave in such settings. There is also much footage evidence of real bravery among the Russians in infantry fighting like these ones^[»][»][»] with a lone Russian fighter crawling up to the Ukrainians and single-handedly processing several Ukrainians. Or a Russian soldier with the balls of steel who actually ducks under an FPV drone and just casually keeps walking away as if nothing happened^[»][»].

There is also much bravery among Russian civilians, including pensioners like this old guy^[»] who bravely thwarted a thief's attempt to steal a handy from a kid and then was rewarded with a car by his community^[»].

So, how come Western media only reports about alleged (giving no evidence) Ukrainian bravery but none whatsoever about Russian bravery? Instead, they only describe Russian soldiers in bad light. This is further proof of the bigoted Western propaganda machine. Russian media, on the other hand, never says that Russian soldiers are braver than Ukrainians and they do post videos showing Ukrainian conquests.

Thank you for reading this article and participating in this peace initiative by raising your awareness and, hopefully, your consciousness and spirit. To properly grasp everything, we^[*^] recommend reading the articles of this peace initiative for Ukraine in the proper order, which is listed in the Contents. So if you haven’t read the previous articles, we recommend that you do. This article is part of the “Reality Checks” segment warning about propaganda. When you are ready, please proceed to the next article in this series: Ukraine Is NOT Winning

1. as we explained in a separate article (see here), there was never such thing as a battle in Kyiv but just some bombardements like it happens all the time there. This was a fake narrative to embolden the locals to fight

2. Anglo-Saxons^[+] are originally pagan Germanic people who migrated from northern Europe and settled first in England and then also in the US. The largest ethnic group in the US are Germans. Anglo-Saxons are another tribe or folk than the Slavs. Ukrainians are Eastern Slavs but Zelensky is a Jew, not a Slav.

3. WEF^[+]), World Economic Forum founded by Klaus Schwab is a billionaire club of far-left, globalist oligarchs with huge influence on world governments and UN; meets once a year in Swiss Davos. Agenda: the Great Reset, NWO, one world government, depopulation, CBDC...

4. psychotropic substances = affecting the mind or mood or other mental processes

5. OHCHR = Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

6. The Ghost of Kyiv is the nickname given to a mythical MiG-29 flying ace credited with shooting down six Russian planes over Kyiv during the Kyiv offensive on 24 February 2022. It was used as a morale booster for Ukrainians during the war.