A video has surfaced on TikTok of luxury cars pulling up to a private jet with a caption suggesting that it shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy using billions to fund such a lifestyle.
The Verdict False
The video comes from the Instagram account of a private jet provider company and nothing in the original post links the jet and cars to Zelenskyy.
The claim, shared across Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and X (archived) in the form of an image, read:
The President of Ukraine owns a 35 million dollar home in Florida and has $1.2 billion in a overseas bank account. Zelensky owns 15 homes, 3 private planes, and has a monthly income of 11 million dollars. Why is no one questioning where our AID is going?
However, there was no proof of any of the claims shared within the image.
Disinformation targeting Ukraine and its leader Volodymyr Zelensky is surging as US President Donald Trump's shift on the war frays relations with Kyiv and threatens to cripple support for the battle-worn nation. [...]
Joseph Bodnar, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (archived here), said the Russian influence efforts are focused "on fostering animosity between the Trump and Zelensky administrations."
"Russia wants to convince US negotiators that Ukraine is their enemy, not their partner. It's a means for the Kremlin to extract favorable terms in whatever peace settlement comes."
A video shared on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, claims to show a French villa that was bought by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov for his daughter.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Reznikov bought this house.
The above photograph does not show Zelenskyy's home. Using Google's reverse-image search tool, we found the same photograph on a number of real estate websites showing luxury properties in France and Monaco.
Given that the author of the original tweet pulled the photo from real estate profiles of a house in France, without providing any evidence of its ownership, we rate this photograph as "Miscaptioned."
Did the Ukrainian president embezzle Western aid money to buy Highgrove House, the family residence of King Charles III? No, but pro-Russian social media accounts have been spreading that rumour. They want people in the United States and Europe to question how aid being sent to Ukraine is being used ahead of upcoming elections. However, this rumour is based on fake testimony and, what's more, this sale is legally impossible.
Because the photograph was digitally edited to include Zelenskyy and Zelenska, we have rated this claim as "Fake."
The TinEye reverse-image search tool showed that the original photograph [with stacks of money] depicted Floyd Mayweather, a former professional boxer.
The Verdict: False
There is no evidence that President Zelenskyy bought a casino in Cyprus; the claim originated from a fake website impersonating the resort.
The claim that Zelenskyy purchased a casino in Cyprus is belied by the fact that the owners of that casino say they have not sold it, by the fact that the original reporting on the claim was based on a fake website, and by the fact that this original reporting was deleted. Because no real evidence supports the claim, Snopes rates it "False."
The information about the purchase of a hotel is disinformation. The President of Cyprus, the Ukrainian Embassy in Cyprus, and the company that owns the hotel have denied the allegation about the purchase of the hotel by Zelenskyy or a related company. Moreover, the website on which the allegation about Zelenskyy's connection to the hotel appeared turned out to be a clone of the hotel's website and a fake website that was created three days before the information was spread.
