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← All fact checksMorning run · November 10, 2026 · #5 by reach
ConflictMiscaptioned media

Are Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets flying over Rudehen, Iran?

Does a viral video show Russian Su-35 fighter jets flying over Roudehen, east of Tehran, indicating Iran now operates Su-35s?

Misleading

Real footage, wrong aircraft: Iran's army says no Su-35s have been delivered.

The clip is most likely genuine phone video of military aircraft over an Iranian town, but calling them Sukhoi Su-35s is misleading. Iran's army spokesman said on 1 November 2026 that the Su-35 purchase is concluded but no jets have been delivered. The army has identified fighters seen over the Tehran area in this period as its own MiG-29s and F-4s.

+3Sources ↓Original post ↗
Likely genuine
The post as it circulated, labelled by our media check.Video

Claims

✕ 2 false

Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets are flying over Rudehen, Iran, right now (6 November 2026).1234

“رودهن همین الان! سوخو ۳۵ ؟؟”

✕ FalseCentral claimHigh confidence

This claim fails on the simplest possible test: Iran does not have any Su-35s in service as of the post's date. On 1 November 2026, Iran's army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia said the Su-35 contract was complete but that no aircraft had been delivered and that they would arrive only after the war ends — a statement carried by Iran International, i24NEWS, Eghtesaad24 and others. Separately, the Iranian air force publicly explained jets passing over Tehran in this period as its own MiG-29s on routine missions, with other army fighters also flying over the capital (Khabaronline). Those two lines of evidence are independent of each other: one is a delivery statement, the other an operations statement, and they point the same way. A first Su-35 entering Iranian service would be a major regional military development and would be reported by wires and Iranian media within minutes; our searches found no such report for Rudehen or anywhere in Iran, only social reposts of similar clips. The decisive point is not that the video looks fake — it does not — but that the aircraft type in the caption cannot be what the army says it does not have.

Still open: The exact type of the aircraft in this specific clip cannot be confirmed from the footage, and no official statement addresses this particular video.

The blurry aircraft visible in the clip can be identified as Su-35s.56

✕ FalseModerate confidence

Even setting the delivery question aside, the footage itself cannot support a type identification. The aircraft are small, distant and hazy in the frames we examined; at that scale, silhouette features that distinguish a Su-35 from a MiG-29 or F-4 are not resolvable. Our media detector scored the video as overwhelmingly not AI-generated (ai_generated 0.003, deepfake 0.0), which tells us the imagery is probably real footage — but authenticity of the footage is a different question from whether the aircraft are Su-35s. Context reinforces the doubt: Factnameh has rated the recurring 'newly purchased Su-35 seen over Tehran' claim as incorrect, noting that no official report confirms deliveries and that some supplied video was AI-generated while other footage was unrelated to Tehran. Tasnim separately called an earlier Su-35-over-Tehran clip fake and fabricated. The confidence here is moderate rather than high because we are reasoning from what the footage cannot show, not from a positive identification of the aircraft.

Still open: If the original, higher-resolution file were available, a skilled observer might identify the type; the compressed public version does not allow it.

The footage was filmed in Rudehen (Tehran province, Iran).

– UnverifiableLow confidence

The setting is consistent with an Iranian town — concrete rooftops with water staining, brick parapets, metal railings and Persian signage — but nothing in the frames we examined pins the location to Rudehen specifically. There is no recognisable landmark, no street sign reading the town name, and no independent report of a sighting there. We could not geolocate the clip, and no source in our set does so. This matters less than it might seem: even if the location were confirmed as Rudehen, the central claim would still fail because Iran has no Su-35s to fly over it. We mark it unverifiable rather than false because the footage is genuinely consistent with an Iranian town, and we have no evidence the location label is wrong — only no way to confirm it.

Still open: The location could potentially be established by matching rooftops and signage against satellite or street-level imagery, which we did not do.

What was posted

Instagram

An Instagram Reel posted by an account that advertises drone services shows two or three aircraft high in a hazy sky above concrete and brick rooftops. Persian text overlaid on the video says the jets are over Rudehen 'right now' and asks whether they are Su-35s. The caption below is a paid advertising offer, not a factual statement about the aircraft.

“سفارش از طریق دایرکت یک ماهه نامحدود فقط ۲۰۰ هزار تومن”

“Order via direct message — one month unlimited for only 200,000 tomans” — translated

Posted by the Instagram account sky.persia.ir on 6 November 2026. The account's visible content is commercial (drone-related services); the aircraft identification appears only in on-screen text over the video.

The media

Video
Likely genuinePresented as real footage· The claim depends on it

✓ What is genuine

The base video appears to be real phone footage of military aircraft over an Iranian town. The problem is the label put on it, not the imagery.

The tells

  • ●●● Strong signal The urban scene is consistent across the pan — water-stained concrete, brick parapet, metal railing and hazy sky hold together without morphing or impossible geometry.our visual review
  • ●●○ Supporting signal The aircraft appear as small, hazy silhouettes, which is what distant jets filmed on a phone actually look like rather than a tell of manipulation.our visual review
  • ●●● Strong signal Detector output: not_ai_generated 0.99995, ai_generated 0.003, deepfake 0.0 — no sign of synthetic generation.our detector (hive-v3)
  • ●●○ Supporting signal The Persian caption and emoji are ordinary post-production overlays added on top of the footage, not evidence the footage itself was altered.our visual review

Synthetic-media detector

Detector ran

The claim stands or falls on whether the media is real, so the detector ran.

AI-generated likelihood0%
Deepfake likelihood0%

Scores are the detector’s estimate for the file as uploaded. A low score does not rule out editing, a spliced caption, or footage shown out of context — those are judged above. Model v3.

How we checked the media

  • Reviewed the keyframes for physical plausibility, scene coherence and signs of compositing.
  • Ran the clip through our AI-generation detector (hive-v3), which returned an AI-generated score of about 0.003 and a deepfake score of 0.0.

Sources

6 sources reviewed

Further reading

  • 1Iran International The clearest statement from Iran's army spokesman that no Su-35s have been delivered.
  • 4Khabaronline The air force's own explanation of why fighters were flying over Tehran.
  • 5Factnameh Earlier fact-checking of the same recurring Su-35-over-Tehran claim.

The full story

The kernel of truth here is that military aircraft really have been flying low over Iranian towns during the 2026 war, and residents really do film them on their phones. Iran's air force has publicly explained jets over Tehran as its own aircraft on routine missions — a MiG-29 on a daily flight, with other army fighters also over the capital, according to Khabaronline. So a clip of jets over an Iranian town is entirely plausible, and the footage in this post is consistent with exactly that.

What makes the Su-35 label stick is a real, unresolved procurement story. Iran did conclude a contract to buy Russian Su-35s, and Iranian state television had previously suggested they were on the way. But on 1 November 2026 the army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia, said plainly that no aircraft had been delivered and that they would arrive only after the war — a statement reported by Iran International, i24NEWS and Eghtesaad24. That gap between an announced purchase and an empty runway is precisely the space in which 'look, here they are' clips multiply.

This is not the first time. Factnameh has rated the recurring claim that a newly purchased Su-35 was seen over Tehran as incorrect, and Tasnim previously called an Su-35-over-Tehran video fake. The pattern is consistent: real military aviation, a real pending purchase, and a caption that jumps the queue.

Kernel of truth

Iran has agreed to buy Su-35s and its own aircraft do fly over Iranian towns, but the army says no Su-35s have been delivered yet.

Timeline

  1. October 24, 2025

    Factnameh rates the recurring 'newly purchased Su-35 seen in Tehran' claim as incorrect. 5Factnameh

  2. November 1, 2026

    Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia says the Su-35 purchase is complete but no jets have been delivered and they will arrive only after the war. 1Iran International

  3. November 6, 2026

    The Instagram account sky.persia.ir posts the clip labelled 'Rudehen right now! Sukhoi 35??'.

How it was framed

False contextMisleading content

The video itself is most likely genuine phone footage, but it is labelled with a specific aircraft type and place that the evidence does not support. The false element is the framing layered onto real imagery, not the imagery itself.

  • “Visual proof”. Real-looking footage of aircraft over rooftops is offered as the evidence for the identification, with the on-screen question 'سوخو ۳۵ ؟؟' pointing the viewer to the intended conclusion.
  • Urgency. The on-screen text 'رودهن همین الان!' — 'Rudehen right now!' — presents the sighting as happening at the moment of viewing.
  • Missing context. The post gives no source for the aircraft identification and does not mention the army's statement that no Su-35s have been delivered.

Posted on Instagram by sky.persia.ir on 6 November 2026. The account's caption is a commercial offer for drone services; the aircraft identification appears only in the overlaid text.

Bias

NoneSlightModerateStrong

Leans pro-Iran military hype / engagement bait. The post pairs real-looking footage of military aircraft with an eye-catching 'Sukhoi 35?!' caption tied to a specific town and 'right now', a framing that flatters Iranian air-power claims. The account also uses the post as an advertising vehicle, so the emphasis is on sensation and reach rather than accuracy.

Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.

How we checked

1 min 46 s
  1. 1

    Ran six searches in Persian and English on the Rudehen sighting, Su-35 deliveries to Iran, and earlier fake Su-35-over-Tehran clips.

  2. 2

    Reviewed the video's keyframes for physical plausibility, scene coherence and signs of compositing.

  3. 3

    Ran the clip through our AI-generation detector (hive-v3).

  4. 4

    Compared the claim against official statements from Iran's army spokesman and air force carried by the sources, and against earlier fact-checks by Factnameh and Tasnim.

✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked

Why 76% confidence

High

High confidence on the central claim: it rests on a direct, on-the-record statement from Iran's army spokesman about non-delivery, corroborated across several outlets, plus the air force's own explanation of the jets over Tehran. The secondary type-identification claim is at moderate confidence because it rests on what the footage cannot show rather than a positive identification, and the location claim is low because we could not geolocate the clip.

Limits. We could not obtain the original high-resolution file, could not geolocate the footage, and did not identify the specific aircraft visible in the clip.

What we don’t know

  • Where exactly the footage was filmed and on what date.
  • Which aircraft type is actually visible in the clip.
  • Who originally filmed the video and whether it circulated before the 6 November post.

Spot it yourself

Find the overstatement

Looks suspicious, isn’t proof

  • The video comes from a commercial account selling drone services, not a news outlet. That is a reason to check, but small businesses post real footage all the time.
  • The aircraft are blurry and hard to identify. Distant jets filmed on a phone usually look like that; blur alone proves nothing.
  • The caption is an advertisement, which can make the whole post feel mercenary. An ad caption does not make the underlying video fake.
  • The clip is short and has no location stamp. Many genuine sightings are short and unstamped.

The actual evidence

  • Iran's army spokesman said on 1 November 2026 that no Su-35s had been delivered and they would arrive only after the war — reported by Iran International, i24NEWS and Eghtesaad24.
  • The Iranian air force attributed jets over Tehran in this period to its own MiG-29s on routine missions, with other army fighters also over the capital (Khabaronline).
  • No credible outlet reported an Su-35 sighting over Rudehen or anywhere in Iran in November 2026, though a first delivery would be major news.
  • Factnameh has rated the recurring 'Su-35 over Tehran' claim as incorrect, and Tasnim previously called an Su-35-over-Tehran clip fake.
  • Our detector found no sign of AI generation, so the footage itself is probably real — the fault lies in the label, not the pixels.
  1. 1

    Check whether the country actually operates the aircraft.

    Search for the type plus 'delivered' or 'in service' and look for a statement from the country's own military. Here, one search for the Su-35 and Iran leads to the army spokesman's 1 November statement.

  2. 2

    Ask who would be reporting this if it were true.

    A new fighter type entering service is major defence news. If the only results are social reposts and no wire service or national outlet has it, treat the claim with suspicion.

  3. 3

    Separate the footage from the label.

    Look at what the video actually shows — aircraft over rooftops — and ask whether the caption added anything the pixels cannot support, like a specific aircraft type.

  4. 4

    Look for the official explanation of the same sighting.

    Search the place plus 'fighter jets' in the local language. Here, that leads to the air force's statement that its own MiG-29s were flying over Tehran.

Takeaway

Genuine footage can carry a false label. Before accepting what a video says it shows, check whether the thing it claims to show could actually be there.

Questions people ask

Has Iran received Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets?+

No. Iran's army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia, said on 1 November 2026 that the Su-35 contract is complete but that no aircraft have been delivered. He said they would arrive only after the war ends, according to Iran International, i24NEWS and Eghtesaad24. Earlier state television claims that the jets were on the way were not matched by any delivery.

What were the fighter jets flying over Tehran in November 2026?+

Iran's air force said its own aircraft were responsible. A statement carried by Khabaronline explained that a MiG-29 belonging to the air force passed over Tehran on a routine daily mission, and that other army fighters also fly over the capital. The army has attributed jets seen and heard in this period to its MiG-29s and F-4s, not to any new Russian type.

Is the Rudehen Su-35 video AI-generated or fake?+

Our detector found no sign that the video was AI-generated, scoring it about 0.003 for AI generation and 0.0 for deepfake, and the scene looks like coherent phone footage. The problem is the label, not the imagery. The clip most likely shows real military aircraft over an Iranian town, but calling them Su-35s is not supported.

Have 'Su-35 over Tehran' videos been debunked before?+

Yes. Factnameh has rated the recurring claim that a newly purchased Su-35 was seen over Tehran as incorrect, noting no official confirmation of deliveries. Tasnim separately described an earlier video purporting to show a Su-35 over Tehran and Mehrabad as fake and fabricated. Similar clips keep returning because Iran has genuinely agreed to buy the aircraft.

Why do people believe Su-35s are already in Iran?+

Because Iran really has agreed to buy them, and Iranian state television had previously suggested they were coming. When a purchase is announced but the aircraft have not arrived, real footage of Iranian jets over Iranian towns can easily be relabelled as the missing Su-35s. The gap between announcement and delivery is what makes the false claim feel plausible.

Go deeper

Su-35
A modern Russian fighter jet that Iran agreed to buy but, according to its army, has not yet received.
False context
When genuine images or video are shared with a caption or label that misrepresents what they show.
Deepfake
Media manipulated using AI to make someone appear to say or do something they did not.
Geolocation
Working out where an image or video was filmed by matching visible details to known places.

People also search for

سوخو ۳۵ رودهنSukhoi Su-35 Rudehen videoجنگنده سوخو ۳۵ آسمان تهران آبان ۱۴۰۵Su-35 over Tehran November 2026Iran Su-35 delivery after war
For educators+
False context: genuine media paired with a misleading labelThe difference between media authenticity and claim accuracyVerifying procurement claims against official statementsRecurring misinformation patterns around military hardware
  • The video is probably real footage. Does that make the post more or less misleading than an outright fake, and why?
  • If a country has announced it is buying a weapons system, what evidence would you want before believing a video shows it in use?
  • Why might a fact-checker rate the same kind of 'Su-35 over Tehran' claim repeatedly over months or years?

About this check

Platform
Instagram
Age when checked
1–2 days old when checked
Where it spread
IR
Audience
International audience
Language
FA
Status
● Post is live
Verified
November 10, 2026, 02:56 UTC
Published
November 10, 2026, 02:56 UTC

Reach. Fact-checker says recently shared widely on social networks, especially Instagram; no counts published

This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.

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