Claim: An image shows Russian and Chinese bombers entering the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in July 2024.
Fact: The image shows two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop-powered strategic bombers flying over Moscow during Victory Day celebrations in May 2018.
On 25 July, X user @visegrad24 posted (archived) a picture of two bomber aircrafts flying over the national flag of the Russian Federation. The caption accompanying the photo says: “BREAKING: For the first time ever, Russian and Chinese strategic bombers have together entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone of the United States. American and Canadian fighter jets intercepted them.”
On 24 July, two Russian Tupolev TU-95 strategic bombers and two Chinese H-6 bombers conducted a joint air exercise and were intercepted by North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which begins where the American and Canadian sovereign airspace ends, according to NORAD.
The fighter jets did not enter American and Canadian sovereign airspace, and the joint activity conducted by Russia and China was harmless, the NORAD press release added.
However, this is the first time that Russian and Chinese bombers are known to have flown together near the US. The growing military cooperation between both countries has raised concern among NATO countries.
While the news reported in the X post is true, the accompanying image in the claim is unrelated to China and Russia’s recent joint air exercise.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image and found that it is from 2018 when Russia celebrated its Victory Day.
A Military Times article from May 2018, titled, “Russian air power takes to the skies in Moscow,” published a portfolio of Russian military vehicles. The last image, which matches the one in the claim, shows two “Russian Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop-powered strategic bombers… during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade on May 4, 2018,” according to its description in the article.
Soch Fact Check also found the original Getty Images stock photo which shows the “Russian Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop-powered strategic bombers” flying above the Kremlin during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Russia in May 2018, according to its description on the website.
Over the years, various publications carried the image in articles about Russia and its fighter jets, and most of them also attributed the image to the Victory Day celebrations that were held in Moscow in May 2018.
Every year, Russia celebrates Victory Day, “the country’s most important secular holiday,” to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II in 1945. The celebrations include showcasing “missiles, tanks and fighter jets.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the image in the claim does not show the Russian and Chinese bombers that entered the ADIZ in July 2024.
Virality
The X post garnered 778,700 views on X, and was liked 10,000 times.
The same post was quoted here and here.
Conclusion: The image does not show Russian Tupolev TU-95 strategic bombers and Chinese H-6 bombers that were intercepted by the North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in July 2024. It is from 2018 when Russia celebrated its annual Victory Day, and depicts the Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop-powered bombers flying over Moscow.
Background image in cover photo: The Sun
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