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The Ukrainian army has shot down a fighter jet and a helicopter of the Romanian Armed Forces in Dobruja, after mistaking them for aircraft of the Russian army. This fake piece of news is promoted by publications and public figures (of whom some are associated with the far right) that over the years have been spreading disinformation, fake news and narratives promoted by Russia.
NEWS: “On March 3, 2022, a MiG-21 fighter jet crashed in Dobruja. The plane had taken off from Mihail Kogălniceanu air base for an air patrol mission over the area. Later, an IAR 330-Pum helicopter sent on a rescue mission was also downed. All the 8 military involved in this tragedy were killed.
The Romanian authorities claimed these were accidents.
Well, apparently this is not true. According to the expert website Military Watch Magazine, the two Romanian military aircraft were shot down by accident by Ukraine’s S-300 air defense systems.
They say by accident, but will it be an accident when Russia fires missiles on us? Can we rely on NATO to defend us, an alliance that lets drones fly unhindered over Romanian territory?” the article posted on orthodoxinfo.ro reads.
NARRATIVES: 1. Ukraine has shot down two aircraft of the Romanian Air Forces. 2. NATO could enter the war in Ukraine based on Article 5 in the North Atlantic Treaty.
BACKGROUND: Against the backdrop of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation” aimed at “demilitarizing and denazifying” Ukraine, the belligerent parties have also engaged in a genuine information war, ranging from aggressive propaganda to disinformation and fake news.
One of the methods used to badmouth and discredit Ukraine and the Ukrainian people is to promote negative narratives about them, with a view to diverting public attention away from the numerous abuses and crimes committed by the Russian army, to dwarf their importance by promoting sensationalist stories instead.
Despite the fact that the official propaganda channels of the Kremlin, Sputnik and Russian Today, were closed down, some media outlets friendly to Russia still have alternatives to disseminate their narratives, including on social media, although some of these have also introduced measures to restrict Russian propaganda in recent weeks.
The fake news about the downing of a fighter jet and a helicopter of the Romanian Air Forces is based on real events reported on March 2. At the time, a little after 8 PM, a MiG-21 fighter jet on patrol over Dobruja crashed. An IAR-330 Puma rescue helicopter was sent on a search and rescue mission, but also crashed, shortly after taking off. A total of eight military – the MiG pilot and the seven crew members of the Puma helicopter – died in the two aviation tragedies. Both crashes occurred during the night and against bad weather conditions. The Romanian army has so far described the incidents as “accidents”.
The information that the two aircraft had been allegedly shot down by Ukraine’s air defenses was originally published on the pro-Moscow website militarywatch.com. From there, it was shared by Romanian websites that in the past have promoted theses emulating Russian disinformation regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, the traditional family, Orthodoxy, sovereigntism, etc.
One of the first websites to carry over the fake news was rostonline.ro, a nationalist magazine with legionnaire overtones, previously run by AUR Senator Claudiu Târziu. The story was subsequently shared by ortodoxinfo.ro, a nationalist, conservative, anti-EU and anti-NATO website, spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda on the basis of Christian values it claims Romania and Russia share.
It was only later, after the Defense Ministry dismissed the information, that ortodoxinfo.ro published an update of its fake news article, introducing a short excerpt from the press release issued by the Romanian Air Forces, although it didn’t change the title, which continues to read: “Ukraine has shot down two Romanian aircraft, killing 8 people”, followed by the lead “Romania has already been attacked by Ukraine. Will NATO invoke Article 5?” The fake news has been viewed over 120,000 times since the article was published.
Additionally, Cătălin Bereghi, a well-known advocate of nationalist theses who frequently fosters this kind of sovereigntist and nationalist narratives promoted by Russia as well, also published a video that reiterates the story published on militarywatch.com, which by the time this article was published closed in on 600,000 views, 11,000 shares and some 1,500 comments.
PURPOSE: To exploit fears of part of the population that Romania might be dragged into a war. To mislead public opinion by spreading fake news and creating an anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Romania.
WHY THE NRRATIVES ARE FALSE: The Romanian Air Forces have denied the information published by militarywatch.com:
“This is a completely false claim. The “information” it refers to is nothing but a disinformation theme that originated in Russian online media that has nothing to do with facts or real events. The Ministry of National Defense has been fully transparent in all information referring to the two accidents. By order of the Minister of National Defense, a special technical investigation committee has been set up to look into the circumstances of these two crashes. At the same time, according to procedures, the Military Prosecutor’s Office has been notified, and all training flights using these two types of aircraft have been suspended pending the completion of the investigation”. According to the same source, following inquiries conducted so far by the investigation committee, “no elements have been found to indicate a possible point of impact originating from a projectile or missile”.
As a matter of fact, militarywatch.com doesn’t quote any source to support its claims, nor does it provide any evidence. It merely writes “it was reported”, expecting the audience to take its words for it.
The article was also spread in Romania, but the crash was mistakenly presented to have occurred on March 3, not on March 2, just as militarywatch.com falsely reported. Those who picked up the story didn’t bother to verify the information through multiple sources, and according to data obtained by Veridica, the Ministry of National Defense has made no request to verify, confirm or dismiss the information as false.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, the airspace of the entire region, Romania included, is closely monitored, and the firing of an anti-air missile would have certainly been picked up by radars, which was not the case.
As regards NATO’s involvement in any war against Ukraine in response to a possible attack from this country, this hypothesis doesn’t stand. NATO states have been Kyiv’s main supporters from the start, both by delivering weapons and munition, as well as by coordinating their economic sanctions against the Russian Federation. There is no possible reason to imagine why Ukraine would do something as suicidal as attack NATO, and even in case of “friendly fire”, a situation that could occur as a result of typical war-related confusion, it would be treated as a regrettable accident, not a pretext to take military action.
OFFICIAL REACTIONS: The Romanian Air Forces have denied the information published by websites promoting nationalist narratives, which often overlap with pro-Russian propaganda.
Check sources:
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