Russian Telegram channels are distributing a photo of graffiti that allegedly appeared in London. According to the propagandists, it was created on a wall under a bridge near Paul McCartney's house. The graffiti allegedly depicts The Beatles with Volodymyr Zelenskyi “stealing a wallet” from George Harrison.

In fact, this information is not true. This fake first began to spread in August 2024, and now it has been given a “second life”. This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation. There is no real evidence of the existence of such graffiti. Also, not a single reliable British publication reported on such a drawing in London. The fact that the graffiti image is fake is also indicated by the fact that it is being distributed mainly in the Russian segment of social networks and among pro-Russian foreign audiences.

With this disinformation, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian president, in particular, before a Western audience. We have already documented such fakes many times. For example, about graffiti with an F-16 aircraft lost in Ukraine, which allegedly appeared near the Pentagon.

Propagandists are spreading information on social networks that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly bought Hitler's ceremonial car for $15 million. However, this is a fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council reports on this. Its experts found out that this fake comes from the Seattle Tribune website, created just five days ago, and the article with this information does not have an indicated author. The material presents a photo of a car allegedly parked near the President's Office, and claims that it was published by a well-known Ukrainian Telegram channel. However, there is no such photo on the aforementioned Telegram channel.

This fake is one of many aimed at personally discrediting the President of Ukraine and his family. Propagandists are trying to present Volodymyr Zelenskyi as a person making wasteful and provocative purchases during the war, undermining his reputation and reducing the level of trust in him. By spreading fake news about the leadership's misconduct, propagandists are trying to sow distrust among Ukrainian society and reduce support for government institutions. The choice of Hitler's car in the fake is intended to evoke associations with Nazism, which is part of Kremlin propaganda that constantly tries to create an image of the Ukrainian government as “neo-Nazi”.

Propagandists claim on social networks that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly hid from the Russian army in bunkers for two days. They say it was impossible to reach him by phone. Russian propaganda is spreading this information with reference to a statement by former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. However, this is manipulation.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Security draws attention to it. Its specialists found out that Russian propaganda distorted Stoltenberg’s words in an interview with the FT, in which he actually spoke about communication difficulties and enhanced security measures that had to be resorted to in the first days of a full-scale invasion, when Russian troops were in close proximity to Kyiv. Commenting on Zelenskyi’s behavior after the start of the full-scale invasion, Stoltenberg admitted that he “completely underestimated” the Ukrainian president.

Propaganda is trying to present the Ukrainian president as a weak, indecisive leader who allegedly hides at critical moments rather than acts. Russian propaganda is also trying to deflect criticism of Volodymyr Putin, who is often called a bunker dictator due to his isolationist tendencies and fears for his own safety. The spread of fake information about Zelenskyi aims to remove this image from Putin and reduce the severity of criticism directed at him.

Pro-Russian telegram channels spread information that almost no one came to see President Zelenskyi speak from the UN rostrum at the 79th General Assembly of the organization. The hall was allegedly almost empty, only a few people came. The propagandists explained this by saying that everyone was simply tired of the “Ukrainian crisis”.

However, this information is fake. If one watches the broadcast of the speech of the President of Ukraine, one can see the opposite. Representatives of delegations of many countries were present in the hall. In particular, this is clearly noticeable at 2:21 and 14:23 minutes of the video.

This disinformation was spread as part of a campaign to discredit Zelenskyi, also feeding the narrative of his “illegitimacy” after May 21, 2024. The propagandists fear the all-round support of Ukraine by its partners, so they claim that in reality everyone is already fed up with the “Ukrainian crisis”.

Read also: Show-off against the backdrop of global problems: how Russian propaganda portrays Zelenskyi’s visit to the US – MediaSapiens.

A number of pro-Russian internet users have spread the “news” that the newly elected Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum allegedly explained her refusal to visit Ukraine by saying that if she wanted to see a “drug addict” (allegedly referring to Zelenskyi), she would have taken a walk in the Mexican city of Tijuana.

However, this information is not true. This is reported by journalists from the StopFake project. The original source of the disinformation is social network user X Olha Bazova. She publishes and distributes pro-Russian messages, although the description of this profile in English states: “I specialize in humorous political analysis, exposing hypocrisy and satire”. In response to her post, the author of the account even noted that this was a joke and the President of Mexico did not make such statements. However, part of the audience perceived the statement as true (as was intended), and distributed the “news” without specifying that it was fake.

It should be noted that the newly elected Mexican president did indeed decline an invitation to visit Ukraine. However, she explained this by saying that she wanted to focus on the domestic political situation, and not “unwillingness to meet with drug addict Zelenskyi”. Claudia Sheinbaum does not plan to travel much in office, and therefore will only attend the most important international events. The president also added that she will continue her predecessor's policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries and will support the peaceful resolution of all conflicts.

Recently, the Mexican Foreign Ministry sent Putin an invitation to the inauguration of the new president, but another Russian representative will attend the ceremony instead. Ukraine has called on the state to arrest the Russian president if he arrives, since Mexico recognizes the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023, but the Mexican side has rejected this request as well.

With this fake news, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit Zelenskyi and claim that international leaders are neglecting the Ukrainian president. We previously wrote about the fake news that Zelenskyi was invited to speak at a drug rehabilitation center because he is a “good role model”.

Russian propaganda resources are spreading false claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is allegedly trying to use tricks to drag the United States into a war with Russia. The propagandists claim that during his visit to the United States, Zelenskyi wanted to obtain permission to strike Russian territory and thus drag Washington into direct military action. This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

In fact, Ukraine is developing cooperation with the United States and other Western partners solely to obtain support for the defense of its territorial integrity in accordance with international law and the UN Charter. Kyiv does not seek to drag the West into war. Permission to use Western long-range weapons against targets in Russia is necessary to weaken the aggressor and force it to sit down at the negotiating table on fair terms.

This fake is part of Russia’s information campaign aimed at intimidating Western countries and attempting to undermine their resolve to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine. The narrative of “escalation leading to war between the US and Russia” is used to create tension and fear among Western partners in order to force them to reduce their support for Ukraine.

Former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly started a war against the Russian-speaking population of Donbas by launching an anti-terrorist operation during which the Ukrainian army allegedly killed women, children and innocent people. This was noted by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

The Center's experts explain that the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas was a response to the Russian-backed armed aggression that began after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine did not initiate the war, but acted within the framework of international law, defending its territory and citizens from pro-Russian separatists and Russian troops. The accusation of mass murder of civilians is part of the Kremlin's disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian government and justifying its aggressive actions.

Russia is trying to create an image of Ukraine as an aggressor country that violates the rights of the Russian-speaking population. This is done in order to justify its actions on the international stage, in particular the occupation of Crimea and support for militants in Donbas. The spread of such fakes is aimed at causing tensions between different ethnic and linguistic groups in Ukraine, especially among Russian-speaking citizens, which could lead to internal destabilization. Russia is also trying to influence public opinion in Europe and the United States in order to reduce support for Ukraine from the international community. With such statements, the Kremlin seeks to portray the conflict in Donbas as an internal civil conflict, rather than an act of external aggression.

Russian propaganda resources, citing Mira Terada, an “international human rights activist” and head of the Foundation for Combating Repression, are spreading information about the alleged supply of Ukrainian children to British pedophiles through the Olena Zelenska Foundation. Terada also claims that Ukrainian women are forced to give birth to children.

In fact, this is another fake, the Center for Countering Disinformation reports. Mera Terada did not provide any evidence for her words. In addition, the so-called “international human rights activist” is Russian, and her real name is Oksana Vovk. She is known for having spent almost four years in prison in the United States for money laundering and violating anti-drug laws.

After serving her sentence, Terada returned to Russia, where she headed the Anti-Repression Foundation, founded by war criminal and former head of the Wagner group Pryhozhyn.

The so-called foundation regularly spreads fakes about Ukraine and its allies. And the “international human rights activist” herself personally and through her “foundation” spreads fakes throughout Ukraine.

Propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels are spreading information that the West is actively discussing a possible replacement for Zelenskyi. They say he has lost the trust of his partners. This was stated, in particular, by Russian propaganda favorite Scott Ritter.

However, these claims have no basis and are absolutely groundless. This is what experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security point out. They note that Scott Ritter is a well-known propagandist who is actively used by Russian propaganda. He is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, convicted in 2011 for pedophilia and other crimes. He was released on parole after 2.5 years in prison.

The message that the West is allegedly “looking for a replacement for Zelenskyi” is part of Russian propaganda aimed at convincing Ukrainians of Ukraine’s lack of sovereignty and excessive dependence on the West. These messages also aim to discredit the Ukrainian leadership by creating an image of the president as a loser who is about to be eliminated at the behest of his “overseas masters”.

Russian Telegram channels are distributing photos of ATMs with images of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi pasted on them with the caption “I eat your taxes!”. In the corresponding messages, propagandists claim that the photos were taken in the center of Barcelona (Spain).

The Center for Countering Disinformation, after verifying this information at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Consulate General of Ukraine in Barcelona, reported that this was a Russian-ordered campaign. They took several photos and began distributing disinformation material about Volodymyr Zelenskyi. At the same time, the campaign did not become widespread.

The Center for Countering Disinformation adds that Russia is distributing such fakes as part of the “Black Hole” information campaign, the results of which can be found here.

Earlier, Russian propagandists distributed photos of leaflets with the image of the Ukrainian president asking for money in different languages of the world.

Trumpist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene released a statement claiming that the war could have ended months ago, but Zelenskyi's calls for more weapons are only leading to the deaths of a generation of Ukrainian men. Propagandists are actively spreading this statement. However, it is manipulative.

This was noted by experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. They claim that the assertion that the war could have ended several months ago is an outright lie. Moscow has not offered any peaceful solutions since the start of the full-scale war, only ultimatums, which are equivalent to Ukraine's capitulation. Russia is also trying to convince the world that military and financial aid to Ukraine allegedly increases the number of victims among Ukrainians, while its cessation will lead to peace.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is known for her statements that echo Kremlin propaganda and her ardent opposition to aid to Ukraine. She has previously also claimed that Ukraine is allegedly waging a “war against Christianity”, that “civilians are being tortured”, and that “Nazism is thriving in Ukraine”. Greene echoes the propagandists, distorting the reality that aid to Ukraine allows it to more effectively resist the aggressor, preventing even greater casualties, destruction, and terror brought by the occupier.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing the cover of the French newspaper Libération. On it one can see athlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who was bored during competitions at the Olympic Games, and a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyi below.

VoxCheck project analysts investigated this case and found out that the column images had been edited. On the original binding, instead of a photo of triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, there was an inscription about Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Iran.

On August 1, 2024, the Libération newspaper actually published a new issue, on the front page of which, in particular, there was a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyi with the headline “Restore our territorial integrity, but not only with the help of weapons”. However, missing from this issue is an image of triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who was exhausted after swimming at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

In fact, we recorded many fakes aimed at discrediting Volodymyr Zelenskyi: propagandists used false advertising banners, magazine covers, graffiti, created individual cartoons, and placed Zelenskyi’s faces on various consumer goods (for example, condoms). With the help of Russian propaganda, Zelenskyi was able to appear in various roles, in particular: a vain person who spends all budget funds only on himself; a punitive satanist destroying Ukrainian church property; a person with drug addiction; theft of Western money; a puppet controlled by the West; a monster who throws “everyone in a row” to the front, etc.

A video allegedly published by the German publication DW is being circulated in the Russian segment of social networks. It allegedly talks about a “new Bellingcat investigation” about a plan to imitate an attempt on Zelenskyi’s children, which was allegedly developed by the Office of the President and the Main Intelligence Directorate. In fact, the Russian authorities and intelligence services planned to blame the terrorist act.

“The Ukrainian side allegedly contacted the US Central Intelligence Agency to talk about the planned provocation, but received a sharp refusal - after all, the American partners think that such a scenario, on the contrary, would escalate the confrontation”, they write in the messages.

StopFake specialists examined the case and found out that this story was completely made up. This news was not distributed by either Deutsche Welle or Bellingcat. Moreover, Deutsche Welle’s videos have a completely different format - in their videos they use original footage and voice-over of the announcer, while on the Internet they distribute cut-ups of stock photos with superimposed text and music.

Russian telegram channels, citing material from the Italian publication Database Italia, report that the Zelenskyi family acquired a wine estate from the English singer Sting. The text notes that the corresponding agreement was concluded on June 28, 2024, and the value of the property is about 60-75 million euros. Moreover, according to the publication, data about this agreement was published in the tax register of real estate in Italy.

However, this information is fake, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council. The Database Italia website, which became the primary source of the fake, was included in the rating of web resources disseminating misinformation in Italian in 2021. This pseudo-publication published a number of fakes about Ukraine, in particular about “American biological laboratories”. After all, the “news” from Database Italia has been repeatedly refuted by Italian fact-checkers.

This fake is being spread as part of Russia’s large-scale disinformation campaign to discredit the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

We have previously recorded similar fakes by Russians. In particular, Olena Zelenska’s purchase of a Bugatti Tourbillon for 4.5 million euros, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s purchase of one of the largest casino hotels in Europe, the approximate price of which was 150 million pounds sterling.

Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that one of the specific Ukrainian online stores of electronic cigarettes sells the “Chill up Zelenskiy” cigarette.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the stuffing and found that the assortment of the online store indicated by the propagandists does not include products with the image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Presumably, the screenshot was faked and replaced with a photo of the original product.

When searching using the keyword chill up, we were able to find original products that did not contain photos of Zelenskyi or other politicians.

However, in general, it is not prohibited to put images of politicians or any other figures on such products: only if the product itself does not violate Ukrainian legislation. For example, on the official website of Epicenter they sell a lighter with the image of Patron the Dog, a dog that inspires explosives. It's a common element of pop culture that arose in the context of a full-scale invasion. It can also be with a cigarette with the image of Ukrainian politicians.

Thus, anonymous people want to discredit the Ukrainian president, because they explain that in Ukraine they are beginning to “idolize” Zelenskyi and “push” his images everywhere: supposedly hinting at a dictatorial form of government. But for some reason, anonymous people, say, do not remember that in Russia there is an entire clothing brand dedicated to the dictator Putin, created by his supporters and participants in the Putin Team movement.

In fact, we recorded many fakes aimed at discrediting Volodymyr Zelenskyi: propagandists used false advertising banners, magazine covers, graffiti, created individual cartoons, and placed Zelenskyi’s faces on various consumer goods (for example, condoms). With the help of Russian propaganda, Zelenskyi was able to appear in various roles, in particular: a vain person who spends all budget funds only on himself; a punitive satanist destroying Ukrainian church property; a person with drug addiction; theft of Western money; a puppet controlled by the West; a monster who throws “everyone in a row” to the front, etc.

Propaganda telegram channels are distributing a video depicting packages of President cheese with the faces of the presidents of Ukraine, France, the USA and Russia. The consumer can choose which cheese to buy: “Zelenskyi on drugs”, “Macron with mold”, “Biden with dementia”, or “Adequate Putin”. It seems that one can now buy such cheese in Russia.

However, this information is not true. The video distributed by propagandists is operative. Its author simply printed out stickers and pasted them onto the original packaging of President cheese. Journalists from the StopFake project reported this.

First of all, the video clearly shows that only four items in the frame have the corresponding design. Immediately behind the cheeses that the author of the video shows on camera, there is a row of processed cheese “With mushrooms” in a standard red package. StopFake journalists also looked at several websites of Russian food delivery services that offer President products, and none of them sell cheeses with the faces of presidents and offensive signatures. And the President brand is owned by the French corporation Lactalis, which is the largest manufacturer of dairy products in the world, so it is unlikely that a multinational company would produce such controversial packaging designs. Moreover, these designs echo key Russian propaganda narratives.

In the end, even part of the audience of pro-Russian telegram channels did not believe the veracity of this news. Many commentators under messages from the video accused the bloggers who distributed it of publishing a primitive fake. Previously, we denied information that Zelenskyi was invited to speak at a rehabilitation center for drug addicts because he is “a good role model”.

Russian resources are distributing a video with the BBC logo, which claims that the personal endocrinologist of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly did not return to Ukraine after finishing a medical conference in London. He decided to take a bus to Paris, where he subsequently applied for refugee status. Despite the fact that the Office of the President of Ukraine allegedly diligently hid the escape of doctor Zelenskyi, the Bellingcat research group managed to find out the “truth”.

In fact, this information is fake. Journalists from the StopFake project reported this. The BBC has never published this video on its social networks or website. In addition, none of the reputable Western media reported such an incident either. Such information is not available on the official resources of the Bellingcat research group.

It is the Russian media that writes about the “flight” of doctor Zelenskyi to France, citing the BBC. However, when clicking on a link in a publication, the reader is taken not to the original source, but to the main page of the British media company.

The Russians deliberately used the BBC logo and its design for propaganda purposes. The video itself is a compilation of various photo and video materials, probably taken from stock sites, featuring Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Hristo Grozev from Bellingcat, photographs of refugees and a train station in London. Finally, the video does not contain any information about “Zelenskyi’s doctor”, neither his photo nor his name.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that propagandists have used this format of fakes with links to the BBC and Bellingcat. Thus, we previously analyzed a fake video on behalf of Bellingcat about the funeral business in Ukraine, as well as another about how the head of the OP Andrii Yermak allegedly paid $27 million for a place in Time’s ranking of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Russian telegram channels write that graffiti with the image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly appeared in Kyiv. As “proof”, the messages add a photograph of a wall on which Zelenskyi is drawn with a noose around his neck and the inscription “Zelia - get out!”

StopFake fact-checkers managed to find the location where such graffiti was allegedly painted. It turned out to be the wall of the private museum of the Yakubovskyi family in Kyiv, photographed from Oleh Koshovyi street.

But there was no similar graffiti on the spot, that is, the fakers created this graffiti using special programs.

An alleged cover of an issue of the German satirical magazine Eulenspiegel with the headline “His Finale” is being circulated online. It shows a footballer in a uniform with EU symbols raised to hit Volodymyr Zelenskyi's severed head.

VoxCheck analysts found that the German magazine Eulenspiegel did not publish an issue with such a cover.

Since on the Eulenspiegel website in the section with all published issues, as well as on the magazine’s pages on social networks, there are no issues with such a cover.

The cover circulated online states that this is the sixth issue of the magazine in 2024. However, the cover of the sixth issue for 2024 is different from the fake one. The actual cover features football fans.

Russian resources are disseminating information that the West allegedly twice transmitted to Russia the coordinates of the location of the President of Ukraine with the aim of killing him, since Zelenskyi is no longer “satisfied with the governments of Western countries”. In reporting this, the Russians refer to the pro-Russian political scientist Mykhailo Pavliv.

This is actually fake. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Ukraine’s international partners recognize President Zelenskyi as legally elected by the Ukrainian people. At the same time, it was Russia, through its agents, that repeatedly prepared assassination attempts on him. By spreading this disinformation, Moscow is trying to shift responsibility to the West.

This fake Russian propaganda is aimed at damaging relations between Ukraine and its international partners. The Center adds that the spread of such lies occurs as part of a long-term Russian information operation on the “illegitimacy of Zelenskyi”.

At the beginning of July 2024, in an interview with Bloomberg, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly said that in Ukraine a “Korean” or other scenario for ending the war could be put to a referendum, and the people in the referendum would say what is more important – “war fatigue” or “borders” 1991. Russian propagandists spread such information.

In fact, Zelenskyi’s words were manipulated, they write at the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. His answer to a Bloomberg journalist’s question: “Do the allies need to start thinking about the German model, that is, allowing Ukraine membership [in NATO. – ed.] while not the entire territory of Ukraine is under its control?”, is taken out of context.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Ukraine had never officially received such a proposal before. The President of Ukraine also referred to the Constitution, saying that any changes to Ukrainian territories are changes to the Constitution, and this is a crime. To this he added: “If we are offered a German model, or some other one, or a “Korean” one, etc.. In any case, we need to understand what is being offered to us, who is offering it to us, why it is being done, and after that understand the opinion of all of us. Not only mine, but above all society. Because society, the people of Ukraine, are the owners of Ukraine”.

By spreading this manipulation, Russian propagandists are trying to persuade Ukrainians to believe that Ukraine needs to begin peace negotiations to end the war as quickly as possible, and on Russia’s terms.

Propaganda telegram channels are disseminating information that the Ukrainian underground is allegedly setting fire to the cars of Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel and the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers. Thus, Ukrainians are allegedly trying to “fight Zelenskyi’s dictatorship”.

However, this information is not true. This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

In fact, what propaganda is trying to pass off as the activities of the “underground” is the work of the Russian intelligence services. Thus, on July 10, 2024, the SBU and the National Police detained a resident of the Kirovohrad region who set fire to a National Guardsman’s car and was preparing sabotage against the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers. As it turned out, her motivation was the money that the Russian intelligence services promised the woman. Also in June of this year, the SBU detained two men in Odesa after they set fire to a military vehicle. For this, the curator from Russia promised them two thousand dollars.

Russia is trying to pass off crimes committed by people it has bribed as acts of “popular resistance” in order to create the impression that Ukrainians are rebelling against the “Zelenskyi dictatorship”. That is, with such actions Moscow seeks to destabilize the situation within the Ukrainian state.

Russian propagandists spread the news, allegedly the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Syniehubov wrote a letter to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi with a request to investigate the corrupt activities of the chairman of the Kharkiv city council Ihor Terekhov.

VoxCheck analysts explained that such a document is fake. In fact, a number of errors indicate a falsification of the document. The press service of the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration confirmed that the document is not real.

For example, some errors are recorded in the “document”:

The correct spelling would be in such words: “Supreme Commander-in-Chief”,  “heads”, “criminal proceedings”, “during” etc.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has transferred 17 million hectares of Ukrainian black soil into private ownership to several American corporations.

VoxCheck analysts determined that such information was false. But foreign companies cannot buy agricultural land in Ukraine. In total, more than 700 thousand hectares of land have been alienated in Ukraine since the lifting of the moratorium.

On July 1, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine lifted the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land. The land market opened, from that moment it was possible to freely buy, sell or bequeath agricultural land plots.

But foreigners, in turn, can only buy land for non-agricultural purposes if these areas contain real estate that belongs to them as private property.

Propagandists began to spread information on social networks that Olena Zelenska, the wife of the President of Ukraine, allegedly purchased a luxury car. One of the messages on this topic states: “Zelenskyi’s wife bought a Bugatti Turbillon supercar for almost 4.5 million euros”. The source of information is supposedly French media, and confirmation should be the words of one of the employees of the Bugatti car dealership in Paris. However, this is fake.

Fact-checkers of the Polish project Demagog drew attention to this. They found that the primary source of information about Zelenska’s purchase of a Bugatti is the French website veritecachee.fr. At first glance, it may seem like just another news resource. However, it turned out to be a tool to promote Russian propaganda.

Analysts at cybersecurity company Recorder Future discovered a media network called CopyCop in early March 2024. It operates in the US, UK and France, using artificial intelligence to plagiarize and modify texts from other sites. The purpose of such actions is to support the Russian perspective on issues such as a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine or the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

One such site is veritecachee.fr. It was registered on June 22, 2024, shortly before the first round of the French elections. According to the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, the site presents the war in Ukraine from the Russian point of view. In addition, fact-checker David Puente and Kyle Glen, an investigator from the Center for Information Resilience, noticed that the site still contains instructions on artificial intelligence on how to write texts.

The proof in favor of buying a Bugatti is the invoice that appeared in numerous messages with this fake. However, the document contains errors that significantly reduce its reliability. According to French law, the invoice must contain specific details about the transaction. This includes, in particular, information about the transaction currency and the seller’s identification number. None of this is on what propagandists present as a Bugatti purchase invoice.

One of the users noticed that the invoice was written in English. It also shows the wrong address for a car dealership in Paris. It is located on Neuilly-sur-Seine, and not on Neuily-sur-Seine, as it is written on the “invoice”.

The car dealership where Olena Zelenska allegedly made a purchase also joined the case. According to a statement he posted on Instagram, both the transaction information and the invoice are false.

A French article about “buying” a luxury car contains not only a photo of the invoice, but also a video with commentary from “Jacques Bertin”. He is an employee of the Bugatti car dealership, who spoke about the details of the presentation of the car to the Ukrainian presidential couple.

The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to the fact that the account of the alleged employee on which the recording appeared was created several days before the publication of the video. This profile is no longer available. In addition, as Italian fact-checker David Puente wrote on Platform X, the photo of the corresponding Instagram profile is a frame from a video in which Bertin talks about the presentation of the car by Zelenskyi. According to Puente, the video was created using artificial intelligence.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and personally the family of President Zelenskyi.