At the end of September 2024, reports circulated on the RuNet that the wife of a US Air Force serviceman said that her husband had died during a Russian strike on a military airfield in the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine. She allegedly also mentioned five destroyed fighter jets delivered to Kyiv. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
On September 26, information appeared on the Russian segment of the Internet that as a result of a Russian missile strike on a military airfield in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnitsky region, an American military man was killed and five F-16 fighters were destroyed. TV presenter Telegram channel Ruslana Ostashko (98,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) clarified: “Other sources report that two to four F-16s were destroyed, but there is no confirmation of this yet.” The source of this information was identified as a certain Melanie Mulvin-Parker, allegedly the wife of an American pilot, who told about everything on her Facebook page.
Telegram channels also wrote about that alleged post “Sanya in Florida"(485,000 views), "The world of Mikhail Onufrienko"(240,000), "Ukraine.ru"(133,000), Borisenko Dmitriy (58,000) and "Voenndelo (Military Affairs)"(55,000), and also"War. No fakes» (3800) - channel of military analysts from quasi-fact-checking "War on Fake" project. Among the media, the death of the US pilot was reported “Arguments and facts", "Russian newspaper", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Reporter", Life.ru And "Regnum"(the last of these notes states that the pilot died on September 25).
However, not all media outlets that shared this story were confident in its veracity. For example, in the pro-war Telegram channel Fighterbomber (354,000 views) the news was commented on as follows: “Alarming... But, of course, I would like to see a direct link to my aunt’s page,” and the author “Southwatch"(55,000) wrote that there are questions about the information being disseminated. Publications "Gazeta.ru", Lenta.ru And "Evening Moscow” in their notes they clarified: “Many Telegram channels agreed that this information is fake” (but the names of these channels were not given).
September 26 Air Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reportedthat in the morning of that day three launches of Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles were recorded from Russian airspace in the direction of Starokonstantinov, where located military airfield. The Ukrainian military did not say in its report that the missiles were shot down, and noted that information about the locations of the defeats “is not public.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on reports of an attack on the airfield in Starokonstantinov at that time, but a lot of unofficial information appeared on the Internet. For example, RIA Novosti with a link to the Telegram channel of Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy reported, that as a result of an attack on the airfield in Starokonstantinov, four F-16s were destroyed. Such fast Shariy actually has it (more than 1 million views), but he did not name the source of the information and clarified that it is being checked. Later, Russian “military correspondent” Alexander Kots (133,000 views) with reference to some Ukrainian sources wrotethat the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to four American aircraft, but clarified that there is no evidence of this. Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation named messages about the destruction of four fighters are fake. Telegram channel Win/Win (262,000 views), in turn, claimed about the defeat of two F-16s. Later there stated and about the death of foreign instructors and aviation engineers: in Starokonstantinov allegedly died nine officers from the “NATO Air Force Headquarters” (six from the United States and three from France), and another 13 were wounded (seven British and six technical specialists from the Netherlands). None of these posts mentioned Mulvin-Parker or included a screenshot of her alleged Facebook post.
As the author of the Fighterbomber channel rightly noted, none of the publications about the wife of the American pilot mentioned at the beginning of this analysis included a link to her post. The only evidence is a screenshot allegedly taken four hours after the post was posted on Malvin-Parker’s page. Many resources referred to the Telegram channel “Military Observer” or posted a screenshot with his branded watermark. There's a post with a viral image came out September 26 at 14:42 Moscow time and received more than 81,000 views. Moreover, in further publications of this channel it was said O defeat only two F-16s. However, the War Observer watermark is missing from some of the later posts. In addition, a third, more complete version of the screenshot went viral - it depicts part of the section with photographs. Based on the keywords, “Verified” determined that the earliest appearance of this variant took place at 14:41 in the Telegram channel “Kot Kostyan - official channel"(80,000 views). Previously, both he and the “Military Observer” repeatedly were caught in the spread of fakes, and also became their primary sources.
Judging by the photo of Malvin-Parker on her profile, she is also a pilot and allegedly published her post from an airbase Altus in the USA. The text reads:
"Stephen is dead. My husband is dead. Fucking Russia and fucking Ukraine! He died because of all this nonsense with the foreign instructor program. I don't know why he agreed... He hasn't been home for several months. And now he's just gone. And I don’t understand how they are going to bring my husband back from this damned Starokonstantinov! And who will return the rest of the dead people here to their families? Somebody's upset about these five damn F-16s. You fucking idiots. Enough. Are our people dying unknown where and for what?»
TV channel "Constantinople” in his note he emphasizes: “The only thing that gives the message credibility is its geolocation - it is always marked in the case of publications, unless it is specifically hidden. The message was written and sent from Altus, Oklahoma. This town of 18,000 residents lives largely due to the existence of a large US air force base nearby.” However, a Facebook user can indicate any geotag in his post, so its presence cannot be unambiguous evidence of anything.
“Verified” could not be found on Facebook either profile by a person named Melanie Malwin-Parker, nor a post about a husband who “died because of all this foreign instructor program nonsense.” Although the screenshot of the alleged post was published in low resolution, we found the original photo that served as the avatar of the featured profile. It turned out that in the Google search results for USAF female pilot Melanie (“US Air Force female pilot Melanie”) there was a similar photo issued one of the first. In this photo taken in April 2024 in Florida, captured Captain Melanie Klusner, flying under the call sign Mach. She leads F-35A Lightning II Demo Team — special group pilots demonstrating the combat capabilities of the F-35A fighter.
Klusner really Married, but of all the social networks he actively maintains his page only in Instagram, where there are no reports of her husband’s death. Moreover, judging by some joint photos And posts, her husband's name is not Stephen, but Colby, and it’s not him shown in the viral screenshot. Colby also serves in the United States Air Force.
As for Klusner’s activity on Facebook, there is some pages with the same name. Apparently it's real account pilots, created back in 2006, has hardly been updated since 2018. However, the platform has profile with the same avatar as in the viral screenshot, but instead of the surname Malvin-Parker, it says Mach Klusner. From post 2014, we can conclude that this page is run by a person who speaks Indonesian, but since August 2024, the profile has become dedicated to the activities of the American pilot. Moreover, recently the page has been updated very actively: for example, on October 1, 24 posts appeared there in an hour, on October 3 - 13 posts in 50 minutes, on October 7 - 21 posts in 20 minutes.
Most likely, it was this fake profile that served as the basis for creating the viral screenshot. So, on September 25, 2024 there were published three post supposedly from Altus airbase (actually original photos done in April 2023). Apparently, one of these posts was altered, and the already edited image was distributed through anonymous Telegram channels.
This version is confirmed by the fact that the pictures shown in the viral screenshot in the photo section completely coincide with those that were published on Klusner's fake Facebook page.
The unreliable reports of crashed F-16s did not end there. For example, in the English-language segment of the social network X, a photo of an allegedly downed fighter jet, which was previously transferred to Ukraine, was widely circulated. On September 26 it was published by a user Olga Bazova (266,000 views), and the next day - official account Russian Embassy in South Africa (916,000). “When you ask Ukrainian pilots where their F-16 is,” the caption reads in both cases. In fact the photo was done back in May 2019. Then reportedthat an F-16 fighter jet crashed into a warehouse near March Air Reserve Base in Perris, California. The plane's hydraulics failed while trying to land, but the pilot managed to eject. The Ukrainian coat of arms was photoshopped onto the tail of the aircraft.
In addition, some posts about the unconfirmed deaths of nine NATO officers (including six US citizens) in Starokonstantinov show a photo of eight coffins covered with American flags. In the publication of the Telegram channel “The world of Mikhail Onufrienko"(243,000 views) it is indicated: “All of them are sent home in coffins, and based on the power of the “Dagger” attacks - in closed ones.” The post does not directly say that the photo is related to recent events in Ukraine, but judging by the comments, it misled readers. In fact the photo was done in August 2020. It shows US troops saluting the bodies of seven Marines and a sailor who were killed after an amphibious tank hit them during a training exercise. sank off the coast of California.
Thus, there is no evidence in open sources that a career US military personnel was killed as a result of the shelling of the Ukrainian air base in Starokonstantinov on September 26. This story is based on a screenshot of a non-existent Facebook post. Apparently, to create a fake, unknown people edited a post published in a fake profile of a real American pilot.
With reference to the same screenshot, many media reported the destruction of several F-16 fighters during the strike by the Russian army. This information cannot be confirmed from open sources. On the one hand, the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while recognizing the attack in the direction of the airfield, did not report the downing of the missiles and noted that they did not disclose information about possible hits. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which regularly reports on the destruction of enemy military equipment (often in unrealistically large quantities), there was no report of a successful attack on September 26 on Starokonstantinov. Reliable so far known about the loss of one F-16 delivered to Ukraine by the Western allies. It happened on August 26, 2024, the Ukrainian pilot died.
This is not the first time that fake screenshots of social media posts have been used to spread disinformation about the consequences of Russian strikes on Ukraine. For example, at the beginning of September got infected two reports: the first is that instructors from Sweden were allegedly injured as a result of the shelling of Poltava, the second is that the Swedish military was forced to donate blood for the treatment of these minors. Both cases involved fake screenshots of non-existent Facebook posts.
Cover photo: social networks
- Is it true that after the missile attack on Poltava, Ukrainian children donated blood for the wounded Swedish mercenaries?
- Is the video true in which a policeman pours blood on the clothes of a doctor at the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
