Russian disinformation campaigns targeting the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, continuously spread fakes about him buying luxurious real estate while his country is suffering under Russian aggression. This time, pro-Russian sources produced a fake that says that Zelenskyy purchased a luxury villa on Saint Barthélemy island and already started building a bunker there. Gwara’s fact-checking team debunked it.
What happened?
On Jan 8, pro-Russian telegram channels that regularly spread Russian propaganda, particularly Дядя Слава (“Uncle Slava”), Осташко! Важное (“Ostashko! Important”), and others published the news that Volodymyr Zelenskyy supposedly bought a villa with a territory of 436 square meters on the island of Saint Barthelemy in France. The island is also known as “Billionaire Island.”
The villa was supposedly bought by offshore Cyprus company Aldorante LTD for €17.8 billion. The purchase agreement, then, was supposedly signed by Svitlana Pishchanko, who acted as a legal representative for the President of Ukraine.
“News” also said that the local company Mancar is already building a bunker for Zelenskyy on the island.
As evidence, Telegram authors referenced unknown French sources and attached a video with a French voiceover that includes several pictures of some real estate and a photo of a document’s pages (supposedly a purchase agreement).
The post was massively spread in Russian media, in particular in Царьград (“Tsargrad”), URA.RU, NEW.RU, RuNews24, RG.RU, Аргументы и факты (“Arguments and facts”), and others. It’s also on Instagram (1, 2) and X.
Analysis
First, we analyzed the images for the “villa” and found out that some of these photographs are real photographs of La Villa Stellae villa, located on Saint Barthelemy island. Some, though, are publicly available photos of the island and photos of some manor in Florida that has no connection to Saint Barthélemy or La Villa Stellae.
We’ve looked into the info about the referenced real estate online. The Stallae villa was sold in the autumn by a real estate company, Sibarth Real Estate, and there’s no information about its current owner. But, as of the publication of the Ukrainian version of this article (DATE), the villa is available for rent per day (1, 2, 3) on various booking platforms. Most of the days in February and the following months were already booked, which eliminated the possibility of construction of the bunker on its territory.
Next, we’ve researched the documents the news offers as evidence of the Stellae Villa purchase. The image has several numeric lists, supposedly from the purchase agreements for a real estate object located at the address 55 Rte de Camaruche, 97133 Camaruche, St Barthélemy. The information about the seller is hidden, and the company Aldorante Limited, with its representative Pishchanska Svitlana, is listed as a buyer.
The pictures of the document have information about a legal firm SCP SIMORRE Alain et CIFFREO Michel with an office at SAINT-BARTHELEMY island and a legal expert Michel СIFFREO who seems to have signed and verified the agreement.
We wrote to Michel Ciffreo to ask about the authenticity of this document, and he told us that the document is fake.
Responding to a request from a French TV channel TF1, the real estate company Sibarth Real Estate reported that they sold the villa in October 2024 and reiterated that the document is fake.
They noted: “The buyer is not Altorante LTD, but a French company with French stakeholders that do not have any connection with Ukraine” and “on the territory of the villa, there are no [repair works], as opposed to what’s said in the video.”
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhy
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