Fake Letter Shared To Claim Indian Govt Asked Russia To Replace S-400 Systems

We found no evidence to support the claim that the Indian government has indeed made such a request.

Fact-Check | The viral letter is fake and is being shared with a false claim.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A notification is being circulated on social media platforms claiming that the Indian government has recently requested Russia to replace the S-400 air defence systems.

What have users said?: Those sharing the image have captioned it saying, "Indian request to Russia for replacement of S 400 systems destroyed during the Pakistan India May 2025 conflict (sic)."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

The post on X had gained over two lakh views at the time of writing this report. Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.

What are the facts?: There is no evidence to support the claim that the Indian government has indeed asked Russia for the replacement of S-400 systems. The notification carried multiple evident discrepancies.

Discrepancies in the viral letter: A closer look at the image showed that the word replacement was misspelt in the heading.

• A vertical line could be seen in the fourth point, where India has been mentioned.

• Both these mistakes pointed us towards the possibility that the notification was fabricated. Such simple discrepancies are usually not spotted in official documents.

There were multiple discrepancies in the viral notification.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

No news reports: Team WebQoof did not find any credible news reports or information available in the public domain that talked about India asking Russia for the replacement of S-400 systems.

PIB debunks the claim: The official X handle of Press Information Bureau's (PIB) fact-checking wing clarified that the viral notification was "fake".

• The post shared on 8 December said, "Several Pakistani propaganda accounts are circulating a letter on social media, falsely claiming that the S-400 systems were destroyed during the India–Pakistan tensions in May 2025 and now India has requested Russia to replace the S-400 systems..."

Conclusion: It is evident that the viral notification being shared to claim that India has asked Russia to replace S-400 systems is fake.

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