Does a viral image show three actual Russian TU-95 bombers and an unknown fourth plane damaged in a Ukrainian drone strike? No, that's not true: Some detection tools say the image shows strong evidence of being forged or synthesized using artificial intelligence. The image also contains tell-tale details that do not match with other photographs of such planes, including elements on the wing that have the wrong shape and propellers sitting at unnatural angles.
An example of the viral image appeared in a post on X (archived here) published on June 5, 2025 with a comment that read:
that will not buff out...
This is what the image looked like
(Image source: screenshot of @secretsqrl123 on X)
AI detection tool Hive said it was only 13% likely the image was generated using AI.
However Lead Stories also ran the image through AI detection tools at the University at Buffalo's Media Forensic Lab, which focuses on "the forensic analysis of digital media." Together, these tools are called the DeepFake-O-Meter. At least two of the tools (GLLF and HIFI) concluded it was '0.9999904632568359' probable out of 1 (archived here) and 99.99 probable out of 100 (archived here) that the image was fake.
Several clues in the image also revealed it was probably generated using AI or other digital tools, for example a weirdly sideways tilted plane in the top right corner with too many wings and tailfins sticking out at odd angles, deformed red stars with too many points on the wings of the bombers and propellers looking like they are tilted upwards (when viewed top-down the blades should not be visible as a cross or star-like shape; a TU-95 has dual propellers that should look like roughly parallel lines from the top). But the most telling detail are the "anti-shock bodies" that normally sit behind the two inner engines on the rear side of the wings: in the image they appear to end in some kind of shiny, round element instead of the pointy shape they have on actual TU-95 bombers.
For reference, compare to this top-down image of an actual TU-95, rotated 90 degrees from the original by Lead Stories for easier comparison:
(Image source: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
