In January 2025, media and Telegram channels spread reports that fighter instructor Jeppe Hansen died during a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian Armed Forces training center. Evidence of this was provided by screenshots of a post by a certain user and the profile of a Danish pilot on social networks. We have verified the accuracy of this story.
In mid-January, information appeared on the RuNet that a NATO F-16 flight instructor was killed during a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog. For example, on the morning of January 18, the Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir” (136,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) wrote (spelling and punctuation preserved): “On the Danish FB (Facebook. - Ed.) They write that an F16 instructor from Denmark was killed in a missile attack on Krivoy Rog. His friends wrote a text that differs from the official version of Zeblan.” Channel "Uncle Slava"(189,000 views) clarified that the alleged Danish instructor's name was Jeppe Hansen and that his death was reported on unnamed social networks. A screenshot of the publication was attached to the posts. Some of them also approvedthat the Dane allegedly gave away his location to a “local prostitute”», after which the attack took place.
On the afternoon of January 18, on his website and in social networks The TASS agency, citing law enforcement agencies, also reported the death of a Danish pilot and F-16 fighter instructor. “[Jepp] Hansen was destroyed during a missile attack on the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ training center in Krivoy Rog,” the agency’s source said. On the evening of the same day, publications circulated containing a photograph of the alleged Dane. For example, Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir” (133,000 views) wrote like this (spelling and punctuation preserved): “Presumably a photo and account of a Danish F16 instructor killed yesterday by a rocket in Krivoy Rog.”
Telegram channels posted similar posts “Poddubny |Z|O|V| edition"(303,000 views), "Soloviev" (twice: 258,000 And 252,000), "Evil proof️"(231,000), Colonelcassad (twice: 210,000 And 188,000), "Belarusian security officer"(158,000), Voblya (143,000), Zergulio (130,000), Rus_criminal (118,000), "First People's"(105,000), "Falcon"(101,000), "Petya the First"(94,000), "Thirteenth"(91,000), Kotsnews (84,000), “Tsargrad-TV” (twice: 71,000 And 79,000), "Cat Kostyan"(79,000), etc. Numerous media outlets also wrote about Hansen’s death: “Arguments and facts"(three times: also here And here), Lenta.ru (twice), Ura.ru (twice), "Moskovsky Komsomolets» (twice), "Sight» (twice), Life.ru (three times: more here And here), "Regnum» (twice), "Evening Moscow", "Reedus", "Military Review"and others. Posts about the death of a Dane are found in "VKontakte", "Odnoklassniki" And social networks X, and on English language.
In the afternoon of January 17, the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reportedwhat was fixed launch of ballistic missiles in Krivoy Rog. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation this attack then did not comment, but Readovka with reference to Russian “military officers” wrote, that the arrival of the Iskanders hit the training center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, located in a social facility not used for its intended purpose. According to the pro-Kremlin publication, the target of the attack was the building of the Krivoy Rog Aviation College. According to the newspaper "Arguments and facts“In total, during the strike on the training center, more than a hundred of both Ukrainian and NATO military personnel could have been killed and wounded.
Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs And civil service emergency situations confirmed the partial destruction of the educational institution building. Besides, reportedthat almost 20 private houses, more than ten vehicles and four multi-storey buildings were damaged. Initially, Ukrainian authorities stated that as a result of the attack on January 17 died four people and up to 14 received injuries (of which four children). The next day, the head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional administration Sergei Lysak wrotethat the injured woman died in the hospital.
As for the death of an instructor pilot from Denmark, which really conveyed The Ukrainian Armed Forces have F-16 aircraft, then a certain Oscar Sorensen, a friend of the deceased military man, allegedly wrote about this on social networks on January 17. According to the viral screenshot, he posted his post on social network X, not Facebook. His post, in Danish, includes the following obituary:
“Today we learned sad news.
It has just become known that my friend and colleague Jeppe Hansen died in Krivoy Rog in Ukraine.
Here in his homeland, he taught Ukrainian soldiers to fly F-16 fighter jets. His experience and skill helped hundreds of Ukrainians master this complex discipline. But today his life was tragically cut short.
I express my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. He was a true professional and a good friend."
At the time of writing this analysis, you can find Oscar Sorensen’s account on social network X with the same username as indicated in the viral screenshot (@OskarSrnsn), but without blue tick and with another photo on the avatar. According to the profile description, this user registered on the site in July 2024 and left only four messages, all dated January 19. One of these tweets is pinned, in English it says: “The news of Jeppe Hansen’s death was greatly exaggerated. An hour ago, he led a bicycle raid into Russia that resulted in the destruction of the entire Russian Su-57 fleet.”
It turned out that reports about the alleged death of a Danish instructor in Ukraine interested the Dane Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) - analyst and blogger, engaged open source investigations (OSINT). On January 19, he shared a viral image on his social network X and wrote: “This is not even good Russian propaganda, it’s just lazy. The news comes from this “screenshot” of a tweet from a non-existent account. The text is clearly translated into Danish and written by a non-native Danish speaker.” After 10 min. Alexander stated, that propaganda works very poorly and that he himself has now “become” Oscar Sorensen. Thus, the blogger shared an English-language tweet from the above-mentioned page @OskarSrnsn, where it was said: “They didn’t even have the sense to take this username because I just took it for myself. This means that this name was not used by any of the suspended accounts. Imagine being too lazy to even just create a fake profile for a tweet.”
In one of the two remaining posts, Alexander in Danish explainedthat it was his old second profile that he switched to and changed his name. In another post, the blogger again on behalf of Oscar Sorensen joked about the allegedly dead instructor: “Jeppe is completely fine. I went a little overboard that day and confused the Steven Seagal movie Under Siege with reality.”
Some Russian media (among them "Arguments and facts") and Telegram channels (for example, "Military observer") stated that Hansen's death was confirmed by Danish and American publications. However, “Verified” did not find such materials in any reputable foreign media. Let us add that in all the posts we found, only the same screenshot was given, which can be understood by the same number of reactions to the tweet (number of views, likes, retweets, replays and bookmarks). At the same time, according to some users, as early as January 18, a profile with the username @OskarSrnsn in X there was no.
In addition, “Verified” found out that the avatar of Oscar Sorensen’s page, which is depicted in the viral image, has a photo of the Danish businessman Alexander Lindhardt, who on his page X also did not publish the post from the distributed screenshot.
The second confirmation of the existence of the deceased Dane were three screenshots of his alleged profile on LinkedIn — social networks for searching and establishing business contacts. The images show that Hansen allegedly worked as a case manager for cyber services (Cybersagsbehandler) at the Royal Danish Air Force, graduated from Aalborg University and the Danish Defense Academy, and listed his interests in the NATO alliance.
"Verified" discovered similar profile on LinkedIn, however, the Dane’s full surname is not indicated there (only the initial H. is written instead). In addition, there is no profile photo and a slightly different job is noted in the Air Force command - just a case manager (Sagsbehandler). We were unable to find out what kind of man is captured in the viral avatar photo (and whether this person is real).
Death of a Danish F-16 instructor denied and Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen - a corresponding statement appeared on January 19 in Facebook head of the Ministry of Defense and page of this department on the social network X.
Currently, information is circulating in the Russian media according to which yesterday (at the time of publication of the statement the shelling took place the day before yesterday. - Ed.) a certain Danish F-16 fighter instructor was killed as a result of a missile attack in Ukraine. This information is not true. Not a single Danish soldier was killed in Ukraine. This is a false story spread by Russian media, probably to discredit Denmark. I take this very seriously. But, unfortunately, this is an example of a very serious security situation that we have in reality, in which influence campaigns involving lies and disinformation are widely used.
It is noteworthy that several Russian media, including Lenta.ru, Life.ru and the newspaperSight", they subsequently wrote: The Danish Ministry of Defense denied the death of its pilot in Ukraine. TASS in his note about the statement of the Danish minister, he also recalled that at the end of April 2022, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced that the family had identified a 25-year-old Dane who allegedly died in Ukraine. According to Danish TV channel TV 2, since March he fought as part of the International Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was part of a group of eight soldiers, six of whom did not survive. According to the channel, among those killed were one American and at least one Briton.
The earliest post with a viral screenshot of a tweet, which was tracked by “Verified”, appeared on January 17 at 18:41 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Bear"(8000 views), and after 18 minutes. a similar post was published in the channel “Dill fresh"(7400). As for the post with profile screenshots on LinkedIn, presumably they appeared first in the above-mentioned channel “Sheikh Tamir" - January 18 at 18:22. All three these resource previously distributed a large number of anti-Ukrainian fakes and often became their primary sources.
Thus, there is no evidence confirming the death of a Danish soldier during the shelling in Krivoy Rog in January 2025. Initially, this news appeared in pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, which have been repeatedly noted for spreading disinformation. Such messages are based on doctored screenshots of a post on the social network X and LinkedIn. The death of a Danish F-16 instructor was also called a fake by the Danish Ministry of Defense.
Moreover, this is not the first such fabricated story about the death of a foreign instructor in Ukraine. In the fall of 2024, reports were spread on the RuNet that as a result of a Russian strike on an airfield in the Khmelnitsky region, an American military man was killed and several F-16 fighters were destroyed, and the wife of an American pilot allegedly told about this on her Facebook. "Checked" in detail toldwhy is this fake?
Cover photo: social networks
- BBC. “Flying is the easiest thing. The rest is more difficult." Why is it so difficult to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16?
- Is it true that the wife of an American F-16 pilot announced the death of her husband as a result of shelling of the airfield in Starokonstantinov?
- Is it true that almost all Ukrainian pilots failed their F-16 fighter training in Romania?
- Did the Prime Minister of Estonia state that the country transferred fighter jets to Ukraine that Tallinn does not have?
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