The Danish Defense Ministry officially refuted the information about the death of its instructor, emphasizing that no Danish soldier died in Ukraine. The publication spreading on social networks is simply fake. No «friend of Instructor Hansen» named Oscar Sørensen ever existed. Another user is registered on the social network X under this nickname, yet he has no relation to the F-16 instructors. The owner of the account called Russian propaganda lazy, since the propagandists did not even manage to create a fake page on social networks themselves, but stole his nickname, which he came up with himself.
Social media and Russian websites are spreading information that as a result of a missile strike on Kryvyi Rih on January 17, 2025, NATO F-16 fighter instructor Jeppe Hansen from Denmark was killed. His friends allegedly wrote about this on social media. As evidence, they are sharing a screenshot of this publication, which was posted on his Facebook page by a «friend» of the deceased under the nickname Oscar Sørensen. However, the format of Oscar Sørensen’s post, which is spreading on social media, looks more like a publication on X.
In reality, this information is fake. The Danish Defense Ministry officially refuted the information about the death of its instructor. And the publication spreading on social media is fake. No «friend of instructor Hansen» named Oscar Sørensen ever existed.
First, the Counter-Disinformation Center, citing the Danish Defense Ministry, emphasized that none of the Danish F-16 instructor pilots died in Ukraine, and the story spread in the Russian media is fabricated. The Center also noted that such fakes serve to promote the narrative of Russia’s war against NATO and attempts to justify its terrorist attacks on Ukraine.
The following statement appeared on the official account of the Danish Defense Ministry on the X social network: «The Defense Minister refutes the false Russian story about the dead Danish F-16 instructor. Information is being spread in the Russian media that a Danish F-16 instructor died yesterday as a result of a missile attack in Ukraine.» Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen emphasized that no Danish soldier died in Ukraine, United24 writes. Poulsen also stated that such disinformation is part of a broader influence campaign against the backdrop of the current serious security situation.
Moreover, such fakes come from Russian sources, which refer to a fabricated Danish social media profile to substantiate their claims. We were unable to find a Facebook profile with the nickname Oscar Sørensen or X that would have made this publication, nor the text itself in Danish. However, we did find a completely different account under this nickname, which allegedly began to spread the news about the death of the Danish instructor. But even its real owner was surprised by the «lazy Russian propaganda.» «They didn’t even have the brains to change the username because I just made it up. Which means that this name was not used by any of the temporarily suspended accounts. Imagine how lazy they are to even create a fake Twitter account,» he wrote.
Later, a user under the nickname Oscar Sørensen also published humorous posts about Jeppe being fine, and that day he «drank a bit too much and confused Steven Seagal’s movie with reality.» And on January 19, 2025, a pinned post appeared on his page: «The news of Jeppe Hansen’s death has been greatly exaggerated. In the last hour, he led a bicycle raid to Russia, as a result of which the entire Russian Su-57 fleet was destroyed.»
Thus, Russian propaganda continues to spread fake narratives about the deaths of foreign instructors in Ukraine in order to supposedly confirm the participation of NATO countries in the war, as well as to discredit Ukraine and reduce military support for Kyiv from its partners. StopFake continues to refute similar fakes in the stories Fake: American Soldier Killed As a Result of the Russian Strike on the Starokonstyantyniv Airfield, Fake: Ukrainian Men More Likely to Become Victims of Sexual Violence Than Women Because of NATO Instructors, Fake: The West Names Real Losses in Ukraine, Document.
