Russian propaganda spreading fake about Olena Zelenska's purchase of exclusive car for EUR 4.5M

Ahead of a NATO summit, Russian propaganda is sharing a fake by creating a website and fabricating a car sales invoice

Pro-Russian English- and French-language accounts on the social media platform X, as well as Telegram channels, are actively spreading information claiming that First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska purchased a new Bugatti Tourbillon hypercar for 4.5 million euros during her visit to France in early June 2024. The primary source cited by the propagandists is the French-language website Verite Cachee France. As "proof", the authors of the article on the website cited a video in which Jacques Bertin, an employee of the Bugatti dealership in Paris, allegedly shares the details about a private presentation of the new car. He claims that the Ukrainian president’s wife placed an order and became the owner of the first of 250 cars. In addition, the publication shared a car sales invoice issued to Olena Zelenska.

This is a fake. The website where the disinformation appeared was created just before its launch, on June 22, 2024. This is evidenced by the domain information from the 2ip service.

The site also contains anti-Ukrainian content and links to Russian propaganda resources such as RIA Novosti and Tsargrad.

The alleged invoice issued to Olena Zelenska has clear indications of forgery. Firstly, it is written in English, not French. Secondly, the invoice lacks essential information regarding the currency in which the payment is to be made and the VAT charged. Furthermore, the propagandists made a spelling mistake in the name of the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where the Bugatti dealership is located. The forged document misspelled the name of the town, omitting the doubling of the letter "l."

The dealership's official Instagram account has stated that this information is false, that the invoice was fabricated, and that the person who appeared to represent the company in the video is not known to them.

The fact that the fake news from the newly created French-language website was immediately widely shared by pro-Kremlin official and anonymous resources to Western audiences indicates that Russian propagandists were directly involved in its creation.

Russian propaganda is continuing its attempts to discredit Ukraine ahead of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., which will start on July 9.

This is not the first example of such disinformation about the family of the President of Ukraine and the alleged misuse of Western funds during the war. Earlier, Ukrinform refuted a fake about Olena Zelenska’s supposed purchase of over a million dollars worth of jewelry from a Cartier boutique in New York, which was published on the website of The Nation Nigerian newspaper.

Dmytro Badrak