Trump's election ad uses stock photo of Russian fighter jets and soldiers

Trump's election ad uses stock photo of Russian fighter jets and soldiers
Photo credit: Trump Make America Great Again / Screenshot

A fundraising ad for US President Donald Trump's campaign reportedly uses a stock photo of Russian fighter jets and Russian soldiers.

The ad captioned 'Support Our Troops' first appeared on September 8 and ran until September 12 as part of Trump's re-election campaign.

"That's definitely a MIG-29," US Air Force plane designer Pierre Sprey told Politico, also confirmed by the director of the Centre for Analysis and Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, Ruslan Pukhov.

Pukhov notes the soldier on the far right carries an AK-74 rifle - which is an assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union.

The stock photo downloaded from a Shutterstock database was accessible for the site's US$29.95 monthly fee.

On Friday, Microsoft warned that Russian hackers were suspected of targeting US political campaigns.

The hacking attempts targeted a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats over the past two months, according to sources.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.