Out of the 197 fact-checking articles our team wrote in 2023, 52 of them concerned the war in Ukraine. And 50 of those highlighted pro-Russian disinformation aimed at discrediting Kyiv and the Ukrainian war effort.
Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky buy a house in Florida? And did he get American citizenship? Those are the rumors circulating on social media along with a couple of photos. However, the villa that appears in the photos is still up for sale and the certificate of nationality is fake, making this the latest example of fake news stories implying that Ukrainian officials are using international aid money for personal purposes.
A few days after Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington, social media accounts are claiming that the Ukrainian president recently bought a mansion in Florida. The posts show pictures of a lavish mansion and a document that looks like a US naturalisation certificate under his name. But both photos are fake: Zelensky did not buy a house in the US, nor did he become a US citizen.
In a comment to StopFake, the resort's press service denied the existence of such a service and noted that representatives of Territorial drafting centers have full access to the territory of Bukovel.
This news is fake, and the story of the attempted sale of Scythian gold is made up. Bloomberg did not publish such stories either on its website or in its social media. Currently, the archaeological objects known as Scythian gold from Crimea, returned to Ukraine from the Netherlands, are under close guard at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is accused of buying two luxury yachts in October with Western aid money, in the name of two of his closest aides. But is there any truth to these claims? We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence Zelenskyy has bought two yachts. [...]
The broker companies that are selling the yachts confirmed to multiple journalists, such as BBC Verify reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh, that the yachts are still for sale.
A post shared on X, formerly Twitter, claims BBC News published a video about Bellingcat researchers reporting that former Ukrainian official Alexey Arestovich spent $500,000 on private flights.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence for this claim. BBC News and Bellingcat both denied they made any such report'
Claim: Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska spent $1,100,000 on Cartier jewelry and got a salesperson fired in the process during a visit to the U.S. with her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in September 2023.
Rating: False
Social media posts claim photos show Oleksiy Reznikov partying on a yacht in the South of France days after leaving his post as defense minister of Ukraine. This is false; the image was taken near Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2020, years prior to the war with Russia.
