A video of India’s Union minister of external affairs (EAM) S Jaishankar admitting that India lost three Rafale fighter jets during the India-Pakistan conflict in May 2025 is viral on social media. The 22-second-long clip shows Jaishankar seated on a chair, mic in hand, addressing a gathering. “…the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night. We had already lost three Rafales to Pakistan two days ago, so it was very unfair of them to attack, but they did it anyway. We responded very quickly thereafter…” he is heard saying.
X user @iUdhoke shared the viral video on July 3 and said that the EAM finally admitted to the loss of multiple fighter jets to Pakistan. (Archive)
India’s EAM Jaishankar has finally admitted the loss of multiple fighter jets to Pakistan, including three Rafales.
“It was very unfair of Pakistan to target Indian jets” said Dr Jaishankar. pic.twitter.com/Wkl4faLyoK
— ਜਸਪਿੰਦਰ ਕੌਰ ਉਦੋਕੇ (@iUdhoke) July 3, 2025
Another X user, @TacticalTribun, also posted the video with similar claims. However, the post was later deleted. (Archive)
Another user, @MSBaig12, also shared the viral video with similar claims. (Archive)
The video was also widely shared on Facebook. Screenshots below:
Click to view slideshow.Fact Check
We were doubtful about the video’s authenticity because Indian military officials have so far not given any numbers regarding the number of fighter jets lost in the conflict after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7. While they neither confirmed nor denied the loss of Rafale jets, they did not give out any specific information. Also, the loss of three Rafale jets is a major blow to the country and its defence forces. If the EAM had made such a statement, it would have received much national and global attention and coverage by news outlets, which was not the case.
To verify the authenticity of the viral video, we broke it down into several key frames. A reverse image search on one of them led us to a video uploaded by Newsweek on July 1. We went through the entire video to check if Jaishankar had indeed made the admission.
At the 43:05-minute mark, Jaishankar can be heard saying “…the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night. We responded very quickly thereafter. And the next morning, Mr Rubio called me up and said that the Pakistanis were ready to talk.” Jaishankar was referring to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Notably, he made no mention of India losing Rafale jets to Pakistan’s offensive.
Then, we went through the viral clip thoroughly to check if it was manipulated. We noticed that the lip movements were not in sync with the audio at times, confirming that the viral video was manipulated with audio likely overlaid. The manipulated clip adds the sentence: “We had already lost three Rafales to Pakistan two days ago, so it was very unfair of them to attack; but they did it anyway.”
To sum up, the viral video of S Jaishankar, where he says that India lost three Rafale jets to Pakistan, in the recent clashes following the Pahalgam terror attack, is digitally altered. The EAM did not make any such statement.
The post Viral video of Jaishankar ‘admitting’ that India lost 3 Rafales in clash with Pakistan is digitally manipulated appeared first on Alt News.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.