Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 24/3/2025; Author: Amar Karađuz
Several websites reported unverified claims from social media that the Russian S-400 missile system shot down a Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet. The claims about the downing of this American-made plane have been denied in Ukraine.
On March 19, 2025, the web portal Novosti published an article claiming that the Russian military had shot down a Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet.
RUSSIAN SOURCES: S-400 Shot Down American F-16
Russian military pilots report that the plane was shot down and that the Ukrainian pilot died in the crash.
According to preliminary data, the fighter jet was shot down by a missile from the S-400 system in the sky above the Sumy region.
The article includes a post from the social media platform X, where a video of the plane flying at a low altitude is shared, along with claims in English about the downing “from multiple sources”. The claim that the Russian missile system shot down an F-16 in Ukraine was published by several web portals, but it also spread on social media platforms Instagram and YouTube (1, 2, 3).
Some web portals included the statement in their articles that the news of the downing of the American fighter came after a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin regarding a ceasefire in Ukraine.
What are the Facts?
Claims that an F-16 fighter jet was shot down in Ukraine were published the day after a two-hour conversation between the Presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation regarding the proposal for a thirty-day halt to attacks on energy networks in Ukraine and Russia.
In a video from the post on the social media platform X, where the claims of the downed F-16 are shared, there is no visible damage or signs of the plane being hit, nor is there evidence that it is flying low because of that. However, Yuriy Ignat, the head of the Communications Directorate of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, denied the claims about the downing of the F-16 fighter jet on March 19, 2025, calling the information “Russian propaganda”. Ignat emphasized that Ukrainian F-16 pilots had successfully conducted operations against the Russian military on that day.
Citing Ignat, the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, which is part of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, also denied the same, stating that the information about the downed plane had spread through Telegram channels.
According to the web portal Newsweek, on March 20, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also denied the claims about the downing of the F-16 fighter jet, announcing that new deliveries of these American-made jets had arrived. Although Newsweek did not receive a response from the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the claims, the Ministry’s reports on the invasion in Ukraine for March 18, 19, and 20 (reports available on these links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), which are published on Telegram, did not mention the downing of the F-16 as one of the military successes. These reports provide detailed descriptions of the losses inflicted on Ukrainian forces, as well as the destroyed military and other equipment, particularly that produced by Western countries.
In a special statement published on March 18, 2025, Ukrainian forces were accused of attempting to sabotage the Trump-Putin negotiations about Ukraine by attempting incursions into Russian territory in the Belgorod region. However, neither the description of these attacks nor the report on the inflicted losses mention F-16 fighters or the death of a Ukrainian pilot.
A Google search of key terms in English also shows no relevant media reporting on such an event.
Several media outlets published headlines in which the claim that an American F-16 had been shot down in Ukraine was presented in a questionable form (1, 2, 3). Although these articles also contain a statement from the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Air Force, such headlines unjustifiably leave room for speculation. The web portal Alo, on the other hand, framed the headline with the question of whether the plane was shot down, but the article states that neither side had commented. This turned out to be inaccurate, but it is possible that, at the time of writing, no reactions had yet occurred.
Therefore, we assess the earliest publications of the claim that the Russian military shot down an F-16 in Ukraine as fake news. Other publications of this claim are considered the distribution of fake news.
