Did the Toronto Sun publish an article reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a nuclear bunker in Canada in September 2026? No, that's not true: When contacted by Lead Stories, the outlet's deputy editor denied the claim. The article appeared on toronto-sun.ca, an impostor site registered eight days before the claim spread.
The claim originated from an article (archived here) published on toronto-sun.ca on Oct. 22, 2026. The headline read:
Zelenskyy buys $42M underground nuclear bunker in Nova Scotia.
The article continued:
According to records from Nova Scotia's real estate registry, the purchase was completed during Zelenskyy's visit to Canada in early September.
The bunker, located about 70 miles north of Halifax, was originally built to shelter political and military leaders in the event of a nuclear strike. It spans 64,000 square feet across two underground levels.
In 2013, it was purchased by Canadian crypto mogul Jonathan Bahai, who later pitched plans to turn it into a luxury, crisis-proof condo complex -- a place where billionaires could ride out almost any catastrophe. The renovation program was launched in 2025.
This is what a composite image from the story looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: toronto-sun.ca.)
When Lead Stories reached out to the Toronto Sun via email on Oct. 23, 2026, its Deputy Editor and National Comment Editor Kevin Hann (archived here) replied the same day:
That's fake content.
Searches of the Toronto Sun website for "zelenskyy bunker" and "zelensky bunker" here (archived here) and here (archived here) found no such article.
Lead Stories manually reviewed all posts published by the outlet's account on X on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, 2026, and found no reports about Zelenskyy buying the bunker.
The site that initially published the article is not affiliated with the Toronto Sun (archived here and here), whose real website is torontosun.com.
The impostor site uses a similar but different domain: toronto-sun.ca. As of publication, WHOIS records showed the domain was only eight days old (archived here):
(Image source: Whois.)
The bunker photo used in the fake story matches an image on the stock photo site Alamy, uploaded on Dec. 31, 2025 (archived here). The caption identified the location as the Debert Diefenbunker in Debert, Nova Scotia. The entrance to the bunker in that photo matched its appearance on Google Maps Street View.
In August 2026, Forbes reported (archived here) that the 64,000-square-foot complex, built in 1964 to withstand a nuclear attack, was "being converted into 50 privately owned suites that operate as a boutique hotel when their owners are away."
Contrary to what the article reviewed in this fact check said about the project's website being "shut down due to a change of ownership," the property website (archived here), as of publication, was live and did not mention the sale in question. Lead Stories reached out to the project's developer via the email address listed on that site, but did not receive an immediate response.
Paul Mansfield presented the renovation project at a Municipality of Colchester council meeting in September 2025, according to the description of a YouTube recording of the meeting (archived here). Canadian public broadcaster CBC described (archived here) this person as "one of the owners of The Diefenbaker project." According to BBC (archived here) and the Winnipeg Sun (archived here), the second co-owner is Jonathan Baha'i. Lead Stories contacted him on LinkedIn but did not receive a response.
A search for the name of the property and Zelenskyy's last name on Google News showed no reports (archived here) from established media organizations confirming the alleged September 2026 purchase. A search for the keywords "Zelenskyy", "bunker" and "Canada" led only to articles describing his Kyiv bunker (archived here).
As of publication, Nova Scotia's online property registry operated on a paid subscription basis and appeared to be available only to legal professionals. Lead Stories contacted the province's authorities but did not receive an immediate response. If Lead Stories receives a response, this article will be updated as appropriate.
(Image source: toronto-sun.ca.)
Despite the absence of any corroborating proof, the claim spread quickly on social media, including in videos. Some accounts on X -- for example, here, here and here (archived here, here and here) -- also published videos with the Toronto Sun logo on Oct. 22, 2026.
Since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lead Stories has documented multiple instances of similar claims populating the internet. They would allege that the Ukrainian president has made extravagant -- and expensive -- purchases such as luxury real estate or vintage cars, while Ukrainian troops fight Russian forces. Lead Stories debunked many such rumors. These articles can be found here.
