His face smeared with blood, his thumbs in the air in victory – this is how Major Vadim Voroshilov presented himself on October 12 in a photo that is now going around the world. Shortly before the photo was taken, the Ukrainian fighter pilot is said to have narrowly escaped death – saved by the ejection seat of his MiG-29. He allegedly shot down two Russian missiles and five Iranian Shahed 136 drones before his plane was downed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) this week presented Voroshilov with the Gold Star of the Hero of Ukraine, Ukraine’s highest medal for bravery. The man has many names, as the “Aargauer Zeitung” (AZ) writes: “Schahed-Kiler, “Ukrainian Maverick”, referring to the American cult film “Top Gun” or “Karaya”. on his flight helmet, which is why he has a different name on the Russian side: “Ukronazi pilot”.
«Karaya-1» best fighter pilot of all time
The reason for this is the model for his call sign. German fighter pilot Erich “Bubi” Hartmann (1922-1993) became famous under the nickname “Karaya-1” during World War II: he is said to have killed 352 Soviet pilots on the Eastern Front. From then on, Hartmann and his squadron comrades called themselves “Karaya-1”, based on the hit song “The Exotic Fairy Tale Karaya”, which was popular at the time.
In 1945, American forces extradited the Star Pilot to the Soviet Union, where he was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. An unfair verdict for Hartmann – after all, as a fighter pilot he never violated martial law, he said. In 1955 he was pardoned early and allowed to return to Germany, where he made his career in the German Air Force.
Russians use the “Karaya” hint for propaganda
Voroshilov’s reference to the famous Nazi fighter pilot is, of course, fodder for Russian propaganda. Because they try, usually with lies or unfounded claims, to present democratic Ukraine as a new version of the Nazi state against which Russia must defend itself.
Little wonder, then, that Kremlin propagandists like to point out that many of the Soviet pilots killed by Hartmann may have been Ukrainians. According to “AZ”, neither Voroshilov nor official Ukraine has commented on these allegations.
On Twitter, however, people ask for clemency for the Ukrainian: it is clear that people like to compare themselves with the very best as a fighter pilot of stature. (chs)