Fake about improper training of Ukrainian F-16 pilots being spread to Western audience

Amid reports that Ukraine received the first F-16 fighter jets, an information campaign targeting Western audiences was launched to discredit Ukrainian pilots. A number of pro-Kremlin English-language accounts on the social media platform X, Telegram channels in English and Spanish, as well as a Bulgarian media outlet, have spread reports that out of 50 Ukrainian pilots who allegedly have already received training at the European Training Center to operate F-16 fighters in Romania, only three are ready to make independent flights.

The reason for this seems to be the reluctance of Ukrainians to learn English, as well as their low physical fitness and alcohol consumption. As "proof," the authors of the fake made public a report allegedly prepared by the Romanian Defense Ministry. The Kremlin's propaganda resources then began to reproduce this information in Russian.

This is a fake. Such a report did not appear on the official website of the Romanian Defense Ministry. In addition, Ukrainian pilots have not even started training at the Romanian training center. It emerged that at the end of July, the first group of pilots did graduate from the center, but they are Romanian specialists, not Ukrainian ones.

In his statement regarding the training of the first group of pilots, the Minister of Defense of the Netherlands [the Ministry of Defense provided F-16 fighter jets for the center] Ruben Brekelmans emphasized that the next group of Romanian pilots has already started training, and later Ukrainians will also train at the center. In general, such training lasts about eight months.

Later, the fake about improper training of Ukrainian pilots was refuted on the Inforadar platform of the Romanian Defense Ministry. It turned out that the fake was created on the basis of a report on the activities of the Romanian Defense Ministry in 2023. In addition, it contains grammatical errors and has an incorrect design. In addition, it is stated that Ukrainian pilots have not yet started training at the Romanian center.

Through such fakes and statements by propagandists, particularly Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the Russians are trying to downplay the role of Western weapons and impose the public opinion that the F-16 fighters do not threaten the Russian army and will not affect the situation on the battlefield. Similar disinformation campaigns were carried out by Russia amid the transfer to Ukraine of other equipment and weapons from the allies, which later showed good results at the front.

Ukrinform reported earlier that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington in July that Denmark and the Netherlands had begun transferring F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and that this summer they will help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression.

Bloomberg, citing its sources, wrote on July 31 that the first batch of F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine.

Ukrinform earlier refuted a fake from a Spanish blogger about the death of soldiers from NATO countries in Odesa.

Dmytro Badrak