Did the US F-16 crash in Ukraine, do the planes carry nuclear weapons on board and are Ukrainian pilots capable of operating them? The Internet and social networks are full of different claims. DV checked the facts.
The first of the long-awaited American F-16 fighter jets arrived in Ukraine in early August. Even before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially presented them, the first fakes appeared on the Internet. DV checked some of them.
Unfit Ukrainian pilots?
Claim: "The Romanian Ministry of Defense has prepared a report on the results of the training of Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilots," user X claims. He posted a photo of a page of the alleged report in Romanian and English. It stated that out of 50 cadets, only three were trained to fly the F-16. This was due to a "careless attitude towards learning English" and "poor physical fitness due to increased weight and alcohol consumption".
Fact Check: False.
The published report is not true and the quoted claims are fabricated. The Romanian Ministry of Defense has confirmed that it is fake.
The first page of the alleged "Report on the activity of the Ministry of Defense on the training of Ukrainian pilots in 2024" is combined from various parts of a genuine 2023 Ministry report. However, Romania specified that “in the paragraphs taken from the official document in question, in which there were editorial errors, a carelessly worded text was inserted - also with obvious errors, which is most likely an automatically translated text from another language."
The fake document gives the impression that the Ukrainian pilots completed training at the European F-16 Pilot Training Center in Fetești, eastern Romania. However, the center was only opened on November 13, 2023, and has so far trained only seven Romanian pilots, whose graduation ceremony took place on July 26, 2024.
Therefore, there are still no Ukrainian pilots who have received training in Romania. According to the NATO defense alliance, Ukrainian pilots have so far trained to fly the F-16 in Denmark and the United Kingdom. And according to media reports – also in France and the USA.
One of the F-16s has already crashed?
Claim: "The first F-16 crashed in Ukraine without entering combat". This is said in a one-minute video in Russian, showing a plane performing maneuvers, during which it suddenly begins to fall, and shortly after an explosion is seen. The claim is circulating on the X platform, as well as on the Russian social networks VK and Odnoklassniki .
Fact Check: False.
A reverse photo search shows that the video is from four weeks ago. The oldest result that can be found is a TikTok video from July 12, 2024 - with about 4.5 million views. It was posted by a Ukrainian taxi driver living in Poland. The video says in Ukrainian: "F-16 crashed". In other videos posted the same day, a user explains that he witnessed a plane crash at Gdynia-Kosakovo Airport.
On July 12, 2024, a plane really crashed in Gdynia. According to the High Command of the Polish Armed Forces, an M-346 Bielik, not an F-16, crashed during training. Polish media also reported the accident in which the pilot died.
DV's fact-checking team found that the video recorded by the taxi driver and uploaded to TikTok was actually recorded in Poland. Therefore, it does not show the F-16 crashing in Ukraine.
Nuclear weapons in Ukraine?
Claim: Ukraine has received not only the first F-16 fighter jets, but also the corresponding tactical nuclear weapons, according to an expert on the pro-Kremlin Russian TV channel "Pervyi Kanal". On the August 1 broadcast, Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information, said in response to a question from the host: "First, they (F-16s) are already here, and I'm sure the tactical nuclear weapons are also already here." ;
Fact Check: Unproven.
The pro-government expert does not present any evidence for his claim. It is true that the F-16s could theoretically be equipped with a tactical nuclear weapon. Already in May 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it considers these planes in Ukraine to be carriers of nuclear weapons and a deliberate provocation by NATO and the United States.
The delivery of the F-16 was made after long negotiations between Ukraine and NATO countries. Like any other arms supply from the West, this one too is bound by certain conditions. According to Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Croix, whose country has promised to supply Ukraine with 30 F-16 aircraft by 2028, these aircraft should only be used on Ukrainian territory. For his part, Ukrainian President Zelensky confirmed that the fighter jets will be used for air defense of Ukrainian cities.
In November 1994, Ukraine joined the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 1968. As a result, Ukraine returned to Russia the nuclear weapons it had inherited from the Soviet Union, or destroyed them itself. At the same time, Russia, the United States and Great Britain committed to the Budapest Memorandum to respect Ukraine's borders. Although Russia violated this agreement with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine continues to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
However, representatives of the Russian government and the media in Russia continue to spread the claim that Ukraine wanted to acquire new nuclear weapons. The campaign also includes fake news about the alleged creation of a "dirty bomb" with radioactive material. Vladimir Putin has also personally said that Ukraine intends to acquire nuclear weapons – these are false statements that the DV fact-checking team refuted some time ago.