The Claim that Zelenskyy’s Mother-in-Law Has a Villa in Egypt is Sheer Disinformation
El Gouna. Photo: Marc Ryckaert (MJJR), CC BY-SA 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons
The owner of the company that runs the luxury resort in Egypt, Naguib Sawiris, tweeted that it was disinformation that Zelenskyy, or whoever from his family, purchased a property in his resort (the luxury resort managed by his company), and that the villa that is mentioned is actually owned by an Egyptian family
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) stating the following:
A villa worth €5.000.000 was purchased in the name of Olga Kiyashko in Egypt! Mother-in-law of V. Zelenskyy!!
But the claim in the post – that the mother of the wife of the Ukrainian President allegedly purchased a villa in Egypt worth €5 million – is sheer disinformation.
The owner of the luxury tourist resort El Gouna in Egypt, Orascom Development, denied the claim that the family of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy owned a villa in the resort.
The reports circulated online were “completely false,” added the company in a statement on Wednesday, Ahram Online in English reports.
As specified, the company dedicates itself to the protection of the privacy of its clients and does not share information or details about its clients. Yet, having checked the records, the company found no evidence that Zelenskyy, or anyone from his family, owned property in El Gouna, a tourist resort 20 km north of Hurghada.
In addition, the company states that the information spread on social networks, accompanied by a photograph of a villa falsely claimed as property of the mother of Zelenskyy’s wife, in fact, is a photograph of a villa owned by an Egyptian family.
Also, the photographs of the alleged “contract” for the villa are fake and forged i.e., fabricated. They are not shared in the post we are fact-checking, however, foreign platforms have published them as alleged “evidence” of the purchase of the villa.
The photos of the alleged contract are also false and the company’s contract templates do not match the images that were shared, added the company.
The disinformation that the mother of Zelenskyy’s wife allegedly purchased a €5-million villa in Egypt started circulating on social networks when an Egyptian blogger presenting himself as Mohammed El-Alawi, in a YouTube video claimed that the family of the Ukrainian President acquired a villa thanks to humanitarian aid-money intended for the support of Ukraine. The owner of the company that owns the luxurious resort in Egypt, Naguib Sawiris, tweeted that it was disinformation that Zelenskyy, or anyone else from his family, purchased property in his resort (the resort managed by his company). Sawiris is a well-known Egyptian businessman and a millionaire. A photograph of the villa that allegedly was owned by the mother of Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska, was also spread with the disinformation, but that photograph as well was also from the property of an Egyptian family. Within the framework of the entire disinformation campaign, a fake contract from the purchase was also circulating. The YouTube channel where it all started later deleted the piece, but other users had already downloaded the video and shared it through various other platforms.
As reported by Euro Day France, this recurring theme in anti-Ukrainian propaganda stresses that Zelenskyy owns property all over the world. In 2022, he was wrongly accused of buying a $5 millionr house in Florida. Apart from that, the YouTube video – from where the disinformation about the villa in Egypt started – was published on a channel that existed only 1 month.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his family are constantly attacked and discredited, with false claims that he abuses the humanitarian aid from the West earmarked for defense from the Russian invasion, and all that as part of Kremlin’s propaganda.
Due to all of the above-noted facts, the post that we are fact-checking is assessed as untrue.
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