Viral 'Ghost of Kyiv' Video Is From Simulation Game (snopes.com) 33
A viral video showing the "Ghost of Kyiv" shooting down a Russian fighter yet was created with Digital Combat Simulator, "a simulation game that was first released in 2008," reports fact-checking website Snopes. From the report: The video was originally posted to YouTube by âoeComrade_Corb.â The original caption identified this clip as a simulation and noted that it was created as an homage to the Ghost of Kyiv. This footage is from DCS, but is nevertheless made out of respect for âoeThe Ghost of Kiev.â If he is real, may God be with him; if he is fake, I pray for more like "him."
When this video was posted to other social media sites, it was miscaptioned as genuine footage of the Ghost of Kyiv. While this video does not feature genuine footage, the general of the Ukrainian armed forces claimed that they had truly downed several Russian aircraft. CNN reported: "The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has claimed five Russian aircraft and a helicopter were shot down early Thursday, as Russian forces attacked Ukraine. The Russian military has denied the claims, state news agency TASS reported on Thursday."
Further reading: 'The Ghost of Kyiv' is the first urban legend of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
When this video was posted to other social media sites, it was miscaptioned as genuine footage of the Ghost of Kyiv. While this video does not feature genuine footage, the general of the Ukrainian armed forces claimed that they had truly downed several Russian aircraft. CNN reported: "The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has claimed five Russian aircraft and a helicopter were shot down early Thursday, as Russian forces attacked Ukraine. The Russian military has denied the claims, state news agency TASS reported on Thursday."
Further reading: 'The Ghost of Kyiv' is the first urban legend of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
lol. lmao. (Score:4, Informative)
This started on 4chan as an ace combat meme. A handful of people reposted it on twitter and facebook and it became "real". There are even some news websites reporting this. I've also seen several screen shots of ARMA 2 being passed off as "ukraine war drone footage".
You really can't believe shit anymore unless you see it yourself.
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Not really.
The VIDEO is fake. The Ghost of Kyiv is not. The Ghost is a mysterious fighter pilot that shot down 6 Russian fighters in a day (Ace in a Day). We just don't have any video of that other than reports for well, 6 planes going down.
In this case, the video is completely irrelevant. The Ghost is that - a mysterious pilot who shot down six planes and no one's seen him since.
God speed (Score:1)
Ukrainians might be a bunch of Rock Choppers but, if there is one, may God Bless their armed forces against the evil Tsar. The plight of the people of Ukraine is symbolic of the wider struggle of democracies everywhere against the hegemony of evil and corrupt nation states.
Corrupt, but noble (Score:5, Insightful)
In fairness, Ukraine is only slightly less corrupt and evil than Russia. It is not a shining light of democracy itself,
Zelensky has publicly announced that he's remaining in Kiev to help fight the Russian attack. This has apparently glavanized the population into a fury of fighting resistance against the Russians.
The soldiers on (Ukraine's) Snake Island were told by a Russian warship to surrender and responded "Russian warship - go fuck yourself", and got summarily killed. Livestreamed during the attack. This has *also* apparently ginned up a fair bit of fighting resistance against the Russians. (To be fair, the Snake Island story is pretty impressive - look it up on YouTube or Twitter.)
The "Ghost of Kyiv" was originally a local urban legend about an unnamed Ukranian pilot who shot down 6 Russian planes during the attack(*), and the video in question was clearly labelled simulation when released (and made "in homage" of the Ghost), but seems to have gotten out of hand.
Oh, and the US/Biden offered to transport Zelensky out of Ukraine for his safety. He declined.
Say what you like about Ukranians, they've got some kick-ass heroes to look up to.
(*) Probably not true, but possibly based on fact. Ukraine claims to have shot down 6 Russian planes, but it's unlikely that a single pilot was responsible. Perhaps a single pilot shot down a couple, and the legend got out of hand.
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Whether that's true or not, what Ukraine needs the most, and above all, at this moment is somebody who can effectively lead and inspire a military. He's doing that job very well. Whether he leads the country to run a fair and just government afterwards, only time will tell, but if Putin wins, you already know that not only will they get a government that is not fair and just, but will also act as a parasite for Putin's sole benefit rather than their own.
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What Ukraine is doing is exactly how small armies defeat big ones. They're doing all of the right stuff. Afghanistan only fell so quickly because at the end of the day, the people of Afghanistan weren't all that interested in democracy. The difference in force between Russia's army and Ukraine's army is much greater than the difference between the Taliban and the Kabul government, and yet Ukraine is putting up a much better fight anyways.
The Kiev situation is a bit reminiscent of the Battle of Stalingrad, a
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Doesn't matter (Score:3)
Propaganda is a part of war and this did its job, even if unintentionally. We always prefer the legend better than the actual event.
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The video went out on quite a few Ukrainian propaganda channels on Telegram. All usual suspects including "White Scum" Goncharenko.
First casualty of war: The truth (Score:3)
Goes for both sides, usually, and for a lot of parties not directly involved.
Re: First casualty of war: The truth (Score:1)
Western doctrine in PR is usually biased i favor of transparency. Hence press conferences with three stars and up every once in a while, even in the heat of battle*.
Soviet doctrine, which derives largely from Russian doctrine, which both the Russians and Ukranian militaries have inherited, is biased in favor of secrecy, misinformation, and that all time favorite word "maskirovka" which can translate into English as deception, misdirection, or simply camouflage, depending on context.
Hence the lack of inform
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Not really. The main difference is that the Russian doctrine tires to revise the whole situation and then go logically from there while the western approach is a bit more to start with facts and then to lie about the conclusions, details and implications. At least with the Russian approach, everybody (including their own people) knows they are lying. The western approach actually fools many people into thinking they are being told the truth and that is not good at all.
Not saying one or the other is _morally
Re: First casualty of war: The truth (Score:1)
In practice a culture skewed toward lying is less likely to achieve objectives than a culture skewed toward more honesty. The key difficulty is that when everyone lies all the time, leadership with influence over initiating irreversible actions can believe the propaganda and lose sight of inescapable facts.
Notice I didn't say anything about Russia vs America in that paragraph. We've imported (or reverse engineered, or developed our own) ways of lying to ourselves, but it still hasn't captured everything the
The Fog of War... (Score:3)
Why exclude Russia? (Score:3)
Why exclude Russia, when Putin has proven to be a liar? He claimed he was just conducting excercises, the day before the Russian invasion he said he the west was lying and he was not planning an invasion then he invaded. Putin said he was peace keeping but is bombing civilian targets. Putin said that Kyiv would fall in a day, three days later it is still unconquered. He said Ukrainians were brothers and it appears even his troops believed that with Russian troops surrendering and saying they did not want to
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Watch DCS World : Ship Movie "Horizon" (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The Ghost of Kyiv is an American stealth drone (Score:2)
While I haven't seen it reported anywhere I have 100% convinced myself that the USA has stealth drones providing air superiority to Ukraine.
If Putin likes to lie about war, I don't see why America shouldn't play by the same rules.
Oh... strange that limited anti-air missiles and obsolete aircraft are shooting down the world's second greatest air power to the point that their soldiers are exposed (to more American anti-tank missiles) on the ground.
I think the only limit to this strategy is that we have to mak
It was obvious from the "camera" movements (Score:2)
Those were obviously not organic camera movements, it was obviously from a sim. Quite good graphics, though.
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It's the shaking that was the tell. Not because there was shaking, but because of the nature of the shaking.
Russian fighter yet? (Score:2)
Methinks BeauHD meant "Russian fighter? Nyet!"...