Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Did an image of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy depicting him as a "locust" eating up budgets around the world appear in New York City's Central Park as of January 10, 2023? No, that's not true. A Lead Stories reporter found no traces of it and the NYC Parks Press Office denied seeing such a drawing. The claim appeared in a…

Did the BBC post a graph that showed a dramatic increase in the "Fortunes of Ukrainian politicians" between February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and December 2022, after the receipt of billions of dollars in U.S. assistance? No, that's not true: The BBC did not post this image, which has been widely distributed on social media.…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bring a national flag with the "Nazi SS" symbol to Washington, D.C.? No, that's not true: The image circulating on social media was flipped to distort the original inscription. The claim appeared in a post published on Facebook on December 23, 2022. It contained an image showing U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President…

Does the image in this tweet document Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on what appears to be a private jet after she spent "€40000 on a shopping trip in Paris"? No, that's not true: The image is a digital manipulation that puts her face on a selfie posted by a bitcoin promoter in August of 2022 on his Twitter feed.…

Did President Joe Biden put his hand on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's buttocks while pausing for a photo op during Zelenskyy's December 2022 visit to the United States? No, that's not true: The original image was posted to Twitter by Jill Biden and shows both Jill Biden's and Joe Biden's hands on Zelenskyy's back. The image was digitally edited and…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy say the word "butthole" when giving President Joe Biden a medal at the White House? No, that's not true: Zelenskyy was saying "Pavlo," the name of the Ukrainian Army military captain who sent his merit award to Biden. The video that claims Zelenskyy gave Biden a "butthole" award does not reflect what the Ukrainian leader…

Have 80,000 Ukrainian troops totally blockaded Russian invasion forces fighting in Ukraine's semi-occupied eastern Donetsk region? No, that's not true: The post making the claim in its caption does not mention a blockade in an accompanying video. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Donetsk on December 20, 2022, and did not say his forces had surrounded the Russian invaders. Keyword searches…

Did Leonel Messi, an Argentinian football star who led his national team to the 2022 World Cup, swear at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Instagram, demanding that the Ukrainian leader "take [his] people and get out of Europe" and displaying a sign with profanity directed at Zelenskyy? No, that's not true. The image was digitally altered, and Messi did not…

Did graffiti showing Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy eating money appear in the capital of France during November 2022? No, that's not true: Neither local authorities nor the personnel of a store located near the supposed graffiti's site saw it. Journalists sent on location did not find any signs of the graffiti. The absence of other images of the scene suggests…

Has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy written a book with the same title as Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the anti-Semitic manifesto for Nazism, and did Zelenskyy present the book to an Israeli embassy? No, that's not true. Social media posts showing the cover of the purported book, entitled "Моя боротьба" ("My Struggle" in English and "Mein Kampf" in German), used altered…