Did Army Deputy Chief ‘Admit’ To India Losing S-400s During Conflict With Pakistan?

A video allegedly showing Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh “admitting” to India purportedly losing S-400 defence systems during the military escalation with Pakistan in May 2025, has gone viral on social media platforms.

In the footage, the Indian official is purportedly heard saying, “Few lessons that I thought I must flag as far as Operation Sindoor is concerned. Firstly, one border, two adversaries. So we saw Pakistan one side, but adversaries were two and if I would say actually four or three actually. We are currently in negotiations with Russia to get two S-400 systems by the end of August, which we lost to Chinese missiles on 10th May. But rest assured, our air defence will be fully operational soon. So Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support…”

Multiple social media users shared the clip claiming, “Pakistan Destroyed India’s 🇮🇳 two S400 during Operation Bunyan UL Marsoos…” Newschecker, however, found it to be untrue. 

Such posts can be seen here, here and here.

Also Read: Deepfake Video Of S Jaishankar Allegedly Admitting India Lost 3 Rafale Fighter Jets During Conflict With Pakistan Shared As Real

Fact Check/Verification

A keyword search for “Lt Gen Rahul R Singh,” “S-400” and “destroyed” on Google did not yield any credible reports on the alleged admission by the Deputy Chief of Army Staff. 

On carefully analysing the footage, we noticed the audio heard in the segment, from 0:15 seconds to 0:31 seconds, where the official purportedly speaks on the S-400s appeared to be slightly different from the voice in the rest of the clip. 

We then conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the clip which led us to a video report by Hindustan Times, dated July 4, 2025, showing Lt Gen Singh’s address at an event organised by FICCI – whose logo can be seen in the backdrop of the now-viral footage. 

Newschecker skimmed through the entire video, and around 16 minutes into the video, heard him saying, “…few lessons that I thought I must flag as far as Operation Sindoor is concerned. Firstly, one border, two adversaries. So we saw Pakistan one side, but adversaries were two and if I would say actually four or three actually. So Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support and it’s no surprise because if you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting  is all Chinese, 81% of that…” 

He did not mention any “negotiations with Russia to get two S-400 systems…which we lost to Chinese missiles,” in the middle of his statements on Pakistan and China, contradicting the viral clip. 

A press release by FICCI, detailing his recent address, did not carry any information about the alleged “negotiations with Russia” to procure the device.

We could thus conclude that a fabricated snippet about S-400 has been placed in between a statement by Lt Gen Singh to falsely show him admitting equipment loss. 

Also Read: Indian Navy Officer Admits Loss Of Rafale, Su-30MKI & MiG-29 Jets During Operation Sindoor? Here’s The Truth Behind The Viral Claim

Government’s PIB Fact Check has earlier debunked the claim about any harm to the equipment, clarifying, “Reports of destruction or any damage to an S-400 system are baseless.” 

Colonel Sofiya Qureshi also called out the misinformation around India’s military assets during a press address, and said, “Pakistan claimed that it damaged our S-400 and Brahmos missile base with its JF 17, which is completely wrong…”

Newschecker earlier fact checked social media posts claiming to show an “Indian S-400 destroyed in Pakistan’s attack,” and found the same to be false. 

We also checked the audio on multiple AI tools, which did not indicate presence of any AI element. However, our investigation, detailed above, concludes that the video is manipulated.

Lt Gen Singh ‘Admits To India’s Defeat’ In Recent Conflict With Pakistan?

Sharing a photo of Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh from the FICCI event, several social media users claimed, “Indian general said Pakistan used Chinese Technology that played a big role in defeating India.” However, we found the same to be untrue. 

Such posts can be seen here and here.

While highlighting the “lessons” from Operation Sindoor, Lt Gen Singh does mention “China providing all possible support” to Pakistan, however, he never says anything indicating “India’s defeat” in the recent escalation.

He says, “…few lessons that I thought I must flag as far as Operation Sindoor is concerned. Firstly, one border, two adversaries. So we saw Pakistan one side, but adversaries were two, and if I would say actually four  or three actually.  So Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support. And it’s no surprise, because if you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese, 81% of that…”

“ And another thing that China perhaps has seen is that he’s able to test his weapons against, say, various other weapon systems that are there. It’s like a live lab which is available… Again, Turkey also played a very important role in providing the type of support that  was there… We saw numerous other drones also coming in, landing in the face of war, during the war along with trained sort of individuals who were there,” he adds 

“The next important lesson is the importance of C4ISR and civil-military fusion. There is a lot to be done as far as this domain is concerned. When the DGMO-level talks were going on, Pakistan actually was mentioning that we know that  your such-and-such important sort of vector is primed and it is ready for action…So he was getting live inputs as far as from China. So that is one place we really need to move fast and take appropriate action…,” he further says.

Government’s PIB Fact Check has also flagged posts making similar claims on the Indian official as “fake.” 

Also Read: Did Afghan Militant Group Vow To Avenge Pahalgam Terror Attack? Here’s The Truth Behind Viral Claim

Conclusion

Hence, we find the viral video, claiming to show Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh admitting that India lost two S-400s during the recent conflict with Pakistan, to be edited. 

Sources
YouTube Video By Hindustan Times, Dated July 4, 2025
Release By FICCI, Dated July 4, 2025
X Post By PIB Fact Check, Dated May 10, 2025
X Post By PIB Fact Check, Dated July 5, 2025