Does this video show a Russian fighter jet intercept a U.S. Navy aircraft and order it to leave on April 10, 2023? No, that's not true: This event shown in the video did not happen on April 10, 2023, but on July 7, 2021. The source of the footage can be found on the Ministry of Defense of Russia's YouTube channel with the time stamp of July 7, 2021. Geoconfirmed, a geolocation platform that focuses on the Russia-Ukraine war, first spotted the match to footage that predates the Russian invasion of Ukraine by several months.
The claim appeared on Twitter on April 10, 2023 (archived here). The caption read:
Reportedly a Russian fighter jet earlier today intercepted a US Navy P-8 Poseidon over the Black Sea and ordered it to leave the area.
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
This exact footage can be found on Russia's Ministry of Defense YouTube channel here. The YouTube video was posted on July 7, 2021. In the Twitter video, at the 0:16 mark, the frame matches what is seen at the 0:10 mark of the Ministry of Defense's YouTube video taken months before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Screengrabs provided below illustrate the match:
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The "Spriter" account's Twitter video has been cropped, removing distinctive scenery from the background, but the details of the reflection in the window of the plane from which the video was filmed prove the match.
There is no audio of any verbal communication between the two aircraft on either video version.
Geoconfirmed, a community-based geolocating platform that focuses on the Russian-Ukraine war, found the match. On April 11, 2023, Geoconfirmed's Twitter account reported its findings.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about the Russia-Ukraine war can be found here.
