The drone that crashed on June 25 in Puiești, Vaslui County, is not a Russian aircraft, but one inscribed with a message in Ukrainian, according to online posts citing a fake photo wrongly posted by the publication Vremea Veche. In the fake photo, the Ukrainian slogan "Peremoha Bude” can be read, which means "There will be victory," written in the Cyrillic alphabet. The same phrase in Russian is "Pobeda Budet."
NEWS: Question: Is the drone Russian or Ukrainian?
ChatGpt: From the elements visible in the image, the drone appears to be Ukrainian, not Russian. Here are the clear arguments:
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✔️ 1. The inscription is in Ukrainian
The text written on the wing is:
«ПЕРЕМОГА БУДЕ» ("There will be victory")
This is a specifically Ukrainian expression. Russia does not use this slogan or the linguistic form "перемога" (the Russian is "победа").
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✔️ 2. The construction style is typical of Ukrainian handmade drones
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✔️ 3. The handwritten markings are compatible with Ukrainian UAVs.
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✔️ Conclusion
Everything indicates that this is a Ukrainian homemade drone.
The slogan in Ukrainian confirms its origin almost without a doubt.
NARRATIVE: The incident in Puiești is a false flag attack by Ukraine to provoke Romania against Russia.
PURPOSE: To exonerate Russia and spread disinformation designed to cultivate anti-Ukrainian sentiments. To amplify fears of war in order to undermine the support for Ukraine.
The photograph that sparked the narrative does not even show the drone from Vaslui.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The drone that crashed in Puiești was not intact, with only fragments of the aircraft found at the scene. The prefect of Vaslui, who was there immediately after the incident, has confirmed to Veridica that the photo of the intact drone does not correspond to what happened in reality. On November 25, 2025, press access was restricted within a radius of several dozen meters around the farm where the aircraft crashed. Veridica was on site, within the limits imposed by the authorities, and photographed a supposed fragment of the drone in a tall tree. This confirms once again that the crashed drone was disintegrated upon impact, so any photo of the entire aircraft is fake.
@Alex Craiu
The Ministry of Defense has not yet published a report on the incident of November 25, but Minister Ionuț Moșteanu stated that the drone was Russian.
Analyzing publicly available information, the Getica combat group, which includes Romanian volunteers fighting in Ukraine, concluded that the drone that crashed in Vaslui was a Russian Gerbera drone. The model in the fake photo is visually different from a Gerbera reconnaissance drone.
Gelu Irimia, a journalist with Vremea Nouă, the publication that originally published the photo of the intact drone inscribed with the message in Ukrainian, says that the photos came from the Vaslui Prefecture and that they were presented on the website for illustrative purposes, without accurately representing the aircraft that crashed in Puiești. In addition, in a recently published article, Vremea Nouă explained that the photo originally published was not a real photo of the crashed drone but "an example of a similar drone."
Vremea Nouă Photo
When contacted by Veridica, the Prefect of Vaslui, Eduard Popică stated the following:
"My advisors did not provide any photographs from this investigation. The photos published by Vremea Nouă came from the owner of the house in question." When asked specifically about the photo in which the aircraft appears intact, Prefect Eduard Popică told us that it’s not real: "Not at all. I was there, it had been dismantled into several pieces."
Regarding the source of that photo, the prefect told Veridica that it was sent to him in a private conversation by a ProTV correspondent. "I asked where she got that photo from and I was told it was from colleagues in Bucharest," Eduard Popică told Veridica. "It was a private conversation, and that person was trying to use the photo to understand what the drone looked like. I don't think she had any malicious intent or wanted to mislead the public about its origin. State institutions and the press, including the trust where the journalist works, did their job in an exemplary manner, eliminating any possible feelings of fear among citizens. It is a rather sensitive subject and must be treated as such," concluded Eduard Popică, the prefect of Vaslui, in a response to Veridica.
According to the prefect of Vaslui County, who was at the scene, two of the photos showing drone fragments are real. We did not identify any Ukrainian inscriptions on any of these fragments. Eduard Popică confirmed once again that "the fragments are real, but the photo of the drone that is intact is not from this event, it’s a photo of something else entirely."
Drone fragments
Evidence that the photo used for fake news had been edited
However, the leaves on the ground in one of the real photos taken at the scene are identical to those in the fake photo, which appears to show the device intact and undamaged, contradicting the idea that the photo of the intact drone is real, but taken in a different location and used for illustrative purposes, thus introducing the possibility that the image is the result of digital manipulation. This explains why two different photos of the same place initially show a real fragment, but later we see a photo whose authenticity has been denied by people who were at the scene.
LOCAL CONTEXT/ETHOS: Narratives about attempts to draw Romania into conflict with Ukraine or possible Ukrainian attacks on Romania have been circulating since the start of the large-scale war in 2022. In March 2022, ortodoxinfo.ro, a website known for publishing false narratives, took from a pro-Russian website the information that Ukraine had shot down two aircraft – a helicopter and a plane – belonging to the Romanian air force. A year later, Senator Diana Șoșoacă, who has never hidden her sympathies for Russia and hostility towards Ukraine, called on NATO to activate Article 5 and intervene to defend Romania, which had allegedly been attacked by Ukraine. Over time, Veridica has debunked other disinformation and false narratives claiming that the EU or the United States were pushing Romania toward war, and even one claiming that thousands of Romanian soldiers were already fighting in Ukraine.
Similar narratives, designed to amplify fear of war among the population, have also circulated in many other countries that support Ukraine, with the aim of undermining this support for Ukraine.
OFFICIAL REACTIONS: When contacted by Veridica regarding the fake drone photo, PRO TV stated the following:
"We must point out that, while researching material for PRO TV News, our colleague identified the photo in question in the public domain and, in the context of a private discussion with the Prefect of Vaslui County, wanted to get a confirmation that the model of the drone that crashed in Romania was the same as the drone in the photo. PRO TV did not use, publish, or distribute this photo in the public domain, did not present it as an image of the drone involved in the incident, and did not attribute it to any state. We understand that the discussion subsequently became public through other channels, but this did not occur through our actions."
