Does a video show the "son of a famous Ukrainian prosecutor" who "was spotted in Monaco enjoying his car" during the Russian-Ukrainian war in January 2025? No, that's not true: Lead Stories analysis showed that neither the date, place or identity of the person matched the clip's description. The video was recorded in Florida in 2023 and showed a Ukrainian entrepreneur who became known on TikTok for recording ironic videos reusing a meme soundtrack.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on January 13, 2025. It said:
While Ukranian men are dying, the son of a famous Ukrainian prosecutor was spotted in Monaco enjoying his car. 'Slava Ukraini'
'Monaco' battalion.
The video
The same video and claim has been circulating online at least since September 14, 2023 (archived here), when it was published in a Russian-language Telegram account of a Russian TV host described as "the most energetic Kremlin propagandist" (archived here) by the U.S. Department of State on March 31, 2022.
The original footage was posted on September 6, 2023, (archived here) on TikTok by the account named @tolanshinkarev (archived here).
As geolocated by Lead Stories, the footage was recorded roughly at this spot (archived here) in Hallandale Beach, Broward County, Florida. The composite image below shows some of the unique matching identifiers, including (1) the position and color of the blue highway overpass, (2) the location of the green elements on the building in the background whose location matches the video and (3) the windows making a semi-spherical shape on the right side of another high-rise whose entrance we see in the clip in question.
The man
The audio
The original video's voice-over that discussed "'Monaco' battalion" and a "famous Ukrainian prosecutor's son" was not recorded simultaneously with the footage -- it was a reused audio trending on TikTok (archived here).
Shinkarev posted videos with the same voice-over more than once as seen, for example, here (archived here) and here.
The "Monaco battalion" is a term that originated from an investigation published by the Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda (archived here). It collectively refers to a social group of well-connected and well-off offsprings of Ukrainian politicians and high-profile business owners enjoying luxury lifestyles abroad.
A search for Shinkarev's name across the website of Ukrainska Pravda (archived here) produced several articles mentioning him but none of them described him as a "prosecutor's son."
Lead Stories contacted Shinkarev for additional comments but did not receive an immediate response.
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In the past, Lead Stories has debunked other similar claims about the purported luxury purchases made by Ukrainian officials during wartime. Those fact checks can be found here. Stories about claims related to the Russian-Ukrainian war are here.
