Fact Check: Ukrainian airbase destroyed by Russia in retaliatory action? No, image is AI-generated

Hyderabad: As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine intensifies, misinformation continues to spread online. Following Ukraine’s recent drone attacks on Russian airbases—which the BBC called one of the largest long-range operations of the war—an image surfaced on social media claiming to show a Ukrainian airbase destroyed by Russia in a retaliatory strike.

The image shows flames and thick smoke around the aircraft, and another plane appears damaged in the background. Debris is strewn across the scene.

The image, shared by X user, features a burning fighter jet with the number ‘31’ on its body. The caption reads, “Ukrainian airbase destroyed in retaliatory action. A befitting response will be given.” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false as the image is AI-generated.

A close analysis reveals telltale signs of artificial creation. The flames and smoke appear unnaturally smooth and uniform, unlike the chaotic, irregular patterns seen in genuine photographs of fire. The aircraft’s surface is overly polished and lacks wear-and-tear details typical of operational military jets. Moreover, the shadows on the debris are inconsistent, and the overall scene lacks depth and realism—common indicators of AI-generated visuals.

To verify, NewsMeter ran the image through three AI detection tools:

Hive Moderation, a widely used content moderation tool, flagged the image with a 99.8 per cent probability of being AI-generated. Decopy AI, a deepfake and image authenticity scanner, returned an 81.5 per cent AI likelihood. Sightengine, another image analysis tool, reported a 99 per cent chance that the image is synthetic.

These results strongly indicate that the image does not depict a real-world event.

The image circulating online that claims to show a Ukrainian airbase destroyed in a Russian retaliatory strike is AI-generated. As of now, there is no evidence of such an incident. Hence, the claim is false.