No, NATO jets didn’t destroy Russian aircraft

"War Begins," read an April 27 Facebook post featuring a video with a grab bag of footage of various aircraft flying. 

Of course, war is well underway following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But this post suggests that the conflict has escalated to a world war. 

"F-35, F-16 and MiG-29 NATO intercept and destroy Russia Jets in Polish air space," 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

That’s because this claim "is false," said Dawn Murty, a spokesperson for NATO’s Allied Air Command.

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“NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says that ‘if Trump surrenders Ukraine to Putin, he will personally expel the United States from the alliance.’”

"Allied Air Command can confirm that there has been no incursion by Russian jets into Allied airspace," Murty said. 

We found no news reports or credible sources to support the Facebook video’s claim. 

NATO regularly publishes updates on its website when its jets intercept other aircraft. 

In December 2020, for example, NATO announced that its air forces across Europe had scrambled more than 400 times that year to intercept unknown aircraft approaching Alliance airspace. Most of those missions — almost 90% of them — were in response to flights by Russian military aircraft. 

It most recently announced that it intercepted (but did not destroy) two groups of Russian military aircraft on Feb. 3. This happened over the Barents Sea and off Scotland; the planes didn’t enter allied airspace, NATO said at the time.

We rate this post False.