There is no evidence that Zelensky transfers $50 million monthly to his account in the UAE

The post we are analyzing does not offer any evidence for the claim that Zelensky transfers $50 million per month to some of his accounts in the UAE. Both these claims, as well as previous ones related to the alleged enrichment of the Ukrainian president, are incorrect and aimed at discrediting Zelensky

We analyze a post on the social network Facebook that says:

“The Green One” transferred $50 million (part of donations to Ukraine) to his personal account in the “United Arab Emirates” every month. / Don’t tell anyone, this is our secret

The post does not cite any source for the claim, nor any evidence or facts to support it.

Truthmeter.mk checked where this information came from and found that it was first published by the Turkish newspaper Aydinlik, and was reported by the Russian news agency TASS.

At the beginning of our analysis, it is worth mentioning that Aydınlık is a Turkish newspaper affiliated with the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi or previously Workers’ Party of Turkey). In 2023, a report by Nordic Monitor revealed that an extreme nationalist group affiliated with Aydınlık had formed a company that carried out disinformation operations, in cooperation with a Russian operator sanctioned by Western countries. The aim was to spread fake news and influence elections and public opinion, especially against the West.

As TASS reports, citing information from Aydinlik, every month members of the inner circle of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky transferred approximately $50 million, obtained as a result of corruption schemes, to the accounts of two companies in the UAE associated with the former adviser to the chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, Andrеy Gmyrin

The newspaper wrote that it was publishing current accounts to where the money is being transferred. At the same time, it published no documents to prove the transfers, TASS notes.

According to the Turkish newspaper, between 2021 and 2023, Gmyrin’s family purchased real estate in Dubai worth over $14 million. In May 2021, the companies “Gmyrin Family Holding” and “GFM Investment Group” were established, where, according to the newspaper, the money is being transferred.

This is not the first time that lies have been spread as part of the Russian disinformation campaign regarding Zelensky’s wealth and the aid Ukraine receives from its partners.

Without any arguments, it is claimed that Zelensky is abusing financial assistance from allies for his own personal enrichment. Incidentally, disinformation has also emerged about a fictional billboard (placed in Milan) that falsely claims to be used for donations for his personal enrichment.

Social networks have also been filled with claims that Volodymyr Zelensky earns $11 million a month, has billions of dollars in assets, including a $35 million house in Florida, and numerous other features of a wealthy lifestyle. This is unproven. As AFP’s fact-checking service reported, public records show that the Ukrainian president owns no property in his name in the United States, financial disclosures and independent investigations show that he is far from a billionaire, and none of the online claims contain evidence of such significant wealth.

USA Today’s fact-checkers came to similar conclusions.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine (February 2022), various videos have been published, republished, and shared on one platform after another, and the main intention of this type of posts is to undermine Zelensky’s integrity, as well as support for Ukraine. It was with this intention that posts were spread on Facebook falsely claiming that the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, had purchased luxury jewelry, that she had purchased a Bugatti car worth 4.5 million euros, that weapons intended for Ukraine were being sold in the Middle East. And, according to some “news” circulating on the Internet, inspired by information shared by the pro-Russian Ukrainian opposition politician, Viktor Medvedchuk, Zelensky bought an apartment in Dubai worth several million dollars.

Suspicions that Zelensky and his entourage are illegally enriching themselves–which the Kremlin has been pushing since the invasion began (as if there was no corruption in Ukraine before)–are often used to discredit Zelensky himself, and through him, Ukraine as a whole, in the eyes of the international community. The aim is to cause a rift between the West and Ukraine and to cut off, or at least reduce, the military and other aid that Ukraine depends on for its defense. The problem is that Russia is consistently rated as more corrupt than Ukraine according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

The post we are analyzing does not offer any evidence for the claim that Zelensky transfers $50 million per month to some of his accounts in the UAE. Both these claims, as well as previous ones related to the alleged enrichment of the Ukrainian president, are incorrect and aimed at discrediting Zelensky.

Therefore, we assess the post we are analyzing as untrue.

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