Did the Russian state-owned news agency TASS accurately report that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is listed as a child trafficker in the Epstein files? No, that's not true: Zelensky's name does appear in 39 documents in the Epstein records on the U.S. Department of Justice website. However, none of those documents have anything to do with child trafficking.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @iluminatibot account on X on April 18, 2026. It read:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is listed as a child trafficker in the Epstein Files.
This is what a screenshot of the video in the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @iluminatibot on X.)
TASS
The TASS report claiming Zelensky and his wife were "engaged in the trafficking of women and children" was posted to the news agency's Telegram social media account (archived here) on February 20, 2026. It read:
Vladimir Zelensky and his wife cynically engaged in the trafficking of women and children through the schemes of US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of pedophilia, said Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Other Ukraine movement and former leader of the Opposition Platform -- For Life party, which is banned in the country.
'In particular, there were reports that Zelensky may have been involved in the abduction and trafficking of women and children through the Ukrainian modeling agency Jean-Luc Brunel. Thus, the illegitimate ruler and his wife have long been cynically involved in the supply of 'live goods' through Epstein's schemes,' Medvedchuk wrote in his article published on the Other Ukraine website.
The politician stressed that Zelensky's name is mentioned many times in the Epstein case.
Despite what the TASS report claimed, Epstein was never convicted of pedophilia. He was, however, convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor and died in 2019 before his federal sex trafficking trial concluded.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by TASS Russian news agency on Telegram.)
Epstein files
The claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may be involved in human trafficking does not appear in the Epstein files released by the FBI. A Lead Stories search of the Justice Department's "Full Epstein Library" (archived here) on April 22, 2026, found Zelensky's name in 39 documents, but none of them mention him along with the trafficking of women and children.
