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No Evidence

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buy the luxury Vuni Palace Hotel in Cyprus? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that the Ukrainian leader bought the resort on the northern coast of the island nation. In an online statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Cyprus called the claim "Russian propaganda" and "yet another lie aimed at discrediting Ukraine and its leadership."

The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, by Aussie Cossack on June 3, 2024. The post's caption said:

🚨🚨🚨🇺🇦BOMBSHELL ALLEGATIONS: Zelensky spent $200 MILLION to buy himself a 5 star casino resort on the beaches of Cyprus through his company 'Film Heritage Inc'.

⚡️Make this go viral!

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jun 4 17:13:39 2024 UTC)

The post provided no attribution or other evidence to substantiate the claim.

An earlier version of the story was published on the OdaTV website in Turkish on June 1, 2024, but the page was removed sometime on June 4, 2024. The translated screenshot appears below:

The OdaTV video version also was posted on Facebook on June 3, 2024.

Post and video

The 84-second video included in the post on X rephrases the claim made in the caption. Here's what the narrator said:

One of the biggest casino hotels in Europe was recently purchased by a company owned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Film Heritage Inc. is now listed as official owner of Vuni Palace Casino Hotel located in Kyrenia, a city on the northern coast of Cyprus.

Again, no corroborating information was offered to back the claim that Ukraine's leader was the new owner of the resort. It was merely stated as fact.

Google search

Lead Stories did searches using keywords on Google News, visible here (archived here), which found no credible documents or reporting as of June 4, 2024, to corroborate the claim that Zelenskyy bought Vuni Palace Hotel.

Vuni Palace Hotel

In a June 5, 2024, email to Lead Stories, hotel operator Oscar Ltd. called the claim "baseless, untrue and a direct attack on our Company's commercial reputation and personal rights." Their statement went on to say:

[B]aseless allegations that aim to damage the commercial reputation of our Company should not be trusted. The news is completely unfounded and untrue, and it is respectfully announced to the public for information purposes that such news should not be trusted...

Ambassador to Ukraine

Michalis Zacharioglou, the ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus to Ukraine, told Lead Stories in a June 5, 2024, email that the "government is investigating the issue." He added:

Up until now the information [does] not seem to be valid.

Ukrainian embassy

Ukraine called the claim that Zelenskyy was the owner of one of the largest casinos in Europe an example of "Russian propaganda." The statement, found on the website of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Cyprus, continued:

In reality, this fake information is yet another lie aimed at discrediting Ukraine and its leadership in the eyes of the world community.

The mentioned fake story claims that the company which acquired the «Vuni Palace Hotel and Casino», located in Kyrenia, Cyprus, supposedly belongs to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

However, the publication provides no evidence to support its claim. The information itself is false. Its dissemination is also intended to create diplomatic tensions between Ukraine and Cyprus.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, unsubstantiated claims about the purportedly luxurious lifestyle of the first Ukrainian couple have recurred. For instance, Lead Stories wrote these fact checks:

• NO Evidence That Volodymyr Zelenskyy Bought Highgrove House From Britain's King Charles III
• Zelenskyy Did NOT Buy A $20 Million Mansion In Vero Beach, Florida
• Zelenskyy's Wife Did NOT Spend Over $1.1 Million On Cartier Jewelry In NYC On September 22, 2023

Read more

Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including Fact-Check Cyprus, in collaboration with Greece Fact Check.

Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving Volodymyr Zelenskyy can be read here.

Other Lead Stories fact checks about the war in Ukraine can be found here.