THIS IS RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA:
Fact Check: Did Ukraine’s Zelensky Buy a $48 Million Yacht?
Nov 30, 2023 at 2:21 PM EST
Tom Norton
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-olena-zelenska-yacht-purchase-1848520
“Among the many misleading and misinformed claims about how funding for the war in Ukraine has been used, none have been more ridiculous than the allegations of ostentatious spending by the country’s presidential office.
President Volodymyr Zelensky faced similar accusations this week, with an allegation from a right-wing U.K. politician that he had used U.S. funding to buy a yacht worth over $48 million.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on November 4, 2023, in Kyiv. Zelensky was said to have bought a luxury yacht, according to a rumor spread online this week.
THE CLAIM
A post on X (formerly Twitter) by the leader of the U.K.’s right-wing Heritage Party, David Kurten, posted on November 29, 2023, was viewed 253,800 times. It showed a video of a yacht called My Legacy.
Kurten wrote alongside: “Zelensky’s new yacht - purchased with donations from US/UK/EU taxpayers.”
THE FACTS
The recent and false allegations against Olena Zelenska, accusing her of corrupt exorbitance, were each let down by their inconsistencies and lack of evidence. The claim she spent $1.1 million in a Cartier store in New York, for example, neglected to consider that Zelenska was in Canada when her alleged splurge was said to have happened.
THIS NEW CLAIM about President Zelensky is similarly false and shallow in its construction.
For a start, the yacht in the video, My Legacy, is STILL FOR SALE. Its broker, Burgess, confirmed to Newsweek that it was still on the market.
“Burgess can confirm that MY LEGACY is currently for sale, with Burgess as the exclusive listing brokerage house,” a spokesperson said.
“We can confirm that the yacht has not been sold and, therefore, REMAINS FOR SALE.”
Kurten provided NO OTHER EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HIS ALLEGATION that Zelensky had bought My Legacy.
Newsweek found no evidence elsewhere that Zelensky had bid or bought a yacht. Newsweek has contacted Kurten’s Heritage Party via email for comment.
As Newsweek’s Fact Check team has previously stated, U.S. funding toward Ukraine is HEAVILY AUDITED, with millions spent on auditing alone.
The Office of Inspector General Oversight in the Department of Defense (DOD OIG) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID OIG) both provide audits of the use of funding in Ukraine and investigate complaints and allegations of misuse or attempted misuse of USAID funding and DOD funding.
Part of the USAID OIG’s remit includes examining avenues for fraud and corruption in U.S-funded foreign assistance programs and providing preventive measures.
These include (but are not limited to) verification of cash assistance, using regulated money transfer agents, and using security-locked beneficiary lists before they are disseminated.
To pay for this using U.S. funding, Zelensky WOULD HAVE REQUIRED a major lapse in oversight from those auditing Ukraine and a breakdown of protections in place to ensure funds could not be re-appropriated.
In any case, the company that has brokered the yacht has CONFIRMED IT IS STILL FOR SALE AND THERE IS NO EVIDENCE ELSEWHERE that Zelensky has made such a purchase.
THE RULING: FALSE.
Volodymyr Zelensky has not bought a $48.9 million yacht, as confirmed by the broker handling its sale.
There is no evidence a similar purchase has been made elsewhere. Funding to Ukraine is heavily audited and itemized, making it very difficult, if not impossible, for Zelensky to make such a purchase using U.S. contributions.
taxesareforever:
"So long Zelensky.
Head for one of your villa or one of your multi million dollar boats in Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gV-rHOgoAg"
Total lies, beginning with Zelenksyy's alleged yacht purchases -- complete Russian propaganda created out of nothing.
The alleged yachts themselves were never sold and you can still buy them yourself if you want to.
The supposed paperwork "proving" the sale was totally fraudulent.
As for Vlad the Invader's Hungarian ally, Victor Orban, he is of course entitled to his opinions.
There are many others with different opinions.
Finally, on the subject of Pres. Zelenskyy, he could well be voted out of office in Ukraine's next constitutionally mandated elections.
Indeed, historically, Ukrainians are very reluctant to reelect their presidents, nearly always chose somebody else.
However, by all accounts Zelenskyy is still hugely popular with Ukrainian voters.
And there's this: Ukraine's constitution requires that elections cannot be held during wartime martial law.
So, constitutionally there cannot be new elections in Ukraine until six months after the war is over.
When will the war be over?
Impossible to say right now.
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