Propagandists are spreading a “news” story on social networks, which claims that Denmark allegedly refused to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 aircraft due to their “learning disabilities”. The 42-second video is edited in the format of a news story with the channel name NewsFlash and the caption “Planes don’t fly”. At the top of the video it says live, which should indicate a live broadcast. However, this is manipulation.

StopFake project specialists tried to determine whether the NewsFlash news channel really exists. Several accounts with this name were found on YouTube, but none of them distributed this video. The earliest version of this story can be found on the Moscow Never Lies YouTube channel dated June 25, 2024. The page notes that this is “Russian satirical news No. 1 from Dmytro Medviediev and Pieskov on Telegram!” There are also numerous videos labeled “NewsFlash”. Although the video was likely originated by a satirical channel, the story was widely disseminated among pro-Russian Telegram channels, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook users.

Analysis of the plot showed that it consists of different videos. For example, for a comment allegedly belonging to a NATO general, declaring the degree of “training” of the Ukrainian military, a video was used by the Ukrainian Mission to NATO, published on May 1, 2024 on its official Facebook page. The video shows a Ukrainian military pilot nicknamed “Moonfish”. The soldier is currently training on the F-16 in the UK.

Also featured in the fake video is General Jan Dam, commander of the Royal Danish Air Force, allegedly declaring the “fall” of all F-16 aircraft in the simulator. In the real video from which this fragment is taken, the Danish general talks about the advantages of the F-16 for Ukraine.

It is the statement that Denmark refused to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 due to their “inability to learn” that is not true. On June 24, Danish Defense Minister Trols Lund Poulsen, during a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Bern Arild Gramm, said that by the end of 2024 Denmark would stop training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 aircraft. However, the training is being stopped due to Denmark's transition to more modern F-35 fighters, which will use Skrydstrup Air Base, where Ukrainian pilots are trained. The Danish Minister of Defense also noted that the country will be able to facilitate the training of Ukrainian pilots in other countries.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and stop the supply of weapons from Ukraine’s allies. They say that the Ukrainian military is not capable of controlling Western weapons, which means there is no point in transferring them.