Viral messages relayed online claim – with supporting documents – that the wife of the Ukrainian president has bought a luxury car for 4.5 million euros.
The Parisian dealership of the Bugatti brand, of which a false invoice is presented as proof, formally denies this and denounces fake news.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Olena Zelenska has been regularly targeted by pro-Russian disinformation campaigns.
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The information under scrutiny
Olena Zelenska, the wife of the Ukrainian president, has been the target of virulent attacks by Internet users who accuse her of embezzling money paid by the EU. “While its population starves and dies in combat”we can read on X, the Ukrainian first lady “buys multi-million euro cars”In this case, a Bugatti Tourbillon, we are told, billed at more than 4.5 million euros and for which we find an invoice relayed with these publications.
Also highlighted is a video of a man who presents himself as an employee of the car brand. In French with a slight accent, he is pleased to count Olena Zelenska as “first owner” of this ultra-luxurious car. Be careful, however: the Bugatti dealership in Paris, which supposedly carried out the sale, formally denies these pseudo-revelations. It quickly reacted and warned against a “fake news” spread online.
Fake news denounced and justice taken into account
Several elements encourage caution when discovering these viral publications. The alleged invoice, which details the purchase, does not specify, for example, the currency in which the transaction would be made. The buyer’s address also attracts attention, since the city of “Neuilly-sur-Seine” mentioned is written with only one “l”.
Contacted, the Parisian Bugatti dealership that is supposed to have made the sale confirmed that it was fake news. This was what it had initially indicated to its Instagram subscribers via a story.
In a press release released at midday, the Car Lovers group, which operates the Bugatti Paris dealership, reported that it had “was the victim of several criminal offences”. And “alleged commercial claiming to be from the Car Lovers group […] posted a video on social media in which he indicated that the dealership […] allegedly sold a vehicle to the Ukrainian presidential couple, Mr. and Mrs. Zelensky”we can read in particular. Adding in passing that the documents presented as evidence are fakes.
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The Car Lovers group has announced that it “firmly denies both the existence of this transaction” just as much as that of “this bill”. Several elements are highlighted: “Not only are the mandatory legal notices missing from the invoice, but the price of the vehicle is also incorrect, the price of the options and their descriptions are inaccurate and inconsistent, the graphic charter is outdated, and the Car Lovers Group would never have allowed the publication of such a document.” Faced with these maneuvers, the brand reports that it has “has already brought the facts set out above before the courts by filing a criminal complaint for forgery, use of forgery, identity theft and defamation, in particular”.
Olena Zelenska, regular target of fake news
This is not the first time that Olena Zelenska has been targeted by fake news, on the fringes of the conflict in Ukraine. The wife of the Ukrainian president has indeed been targeted on multiple occasions by accounts relaying pro-Russian propaganda. In recent years, Les Vérificateurs have notably contradicted the “informations” according to which the first lady would have “spent $1.1 million on jewelry while traveling to New York.”
In January 2023, other messages relied on a photomontage to certify that Olena Zelenska had traveled on board her private jet, after having “spent fortunes in Paris”The motives of these campaigns were always similar: the Ukrainian woman was presented as a woman with an expensive lifestyle, traveling the world to go shopping and spend large sums of money. Money often presented as that “paid by Europeans to Ukraine” and so “diverted” for futile purposes.
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