The BBC reported the findings of a Bellingcat investigation that Ukraine’s former armed forces commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, was paid $53 million to leave this role and become Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK.
This is fake. Neither the BBC nor Bellingcat published any such report. There are no credible media reports we could find suggesting that Gen Zaluzhnyi received any such payment.
A fake video circulating online presents itself as a BBC report about Ukraine’s former armed forces commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who it says was unofficially paid $53 million to leave this role and become the country’s ambassador to the UK.
But this is not a real BBC report. While Gen Zaluzhnyi was removed from his post last month, and nominated as ambassador to the UK, no Bellingcat investigation has suggested he was paid $53 million, as the clip claims.
The clip has been shared by Russian language social media accounts, and the claim was also published by the Russian news outlet Pravda on 9 March 2024.
It has been shared by posts on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and TikTok with some captions written in English saying: “Zelensky bribed his top political opponent, Zaluzhny, with $53M to leave Ukraine and retire to England. Beyond banning elections Zelensky is using US aid to payoff every possible challenger to his rule [sic].”
Full Fact could not see any such report on the BBC News website or any of its social media platforms. Both the BBC and the independent investigative organisation Bellingcat have confirmed to Full Fact that this is not a genuine report.
This is not the first time we’ve come across ‘imposter content’—fake content that appears to be from credible organisations, particularly media organisations.
This includes videos supposedly from Euronews reporting that the Ukrainian Embassy told French farmers to stop protesting, and USA Today reporting on a supposed “brawl” involving a Ukrainian delegate in a New York bar. We’ve also written about many examples of fake articles, including some supposedly published by the BBC, Mirror and Guardian.
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The clip uses the same white font, format, logo and graphics as genuine BBC video reports, and cites “Bellingcat experts” as the source.
It uses a compilation of footage and photos including clips of Gen Zaluzhnyi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, Grant Shapps, and a Bellingcat journalist, Christo Grozev, along with various clips of stock footage. The information is provided by overlaid text with background music.
A journalist from BBC Verify, Shayan Sardarizadeh, shared a screenshot of the video with the caption: “Yet another fake video attributed to BBC News and Bellingcat is being shared by pro-Kremlin users. It falsely claims Ukraine's Valerii Zaluzhnyi received a $53m severance pay to leave the armed forces and become UK ambassador, all part of a UK plot to protect Zelensky.”
Similarly, Bellingcat said on X that it is a “fake report” that “does not contain real Bellingcat research”.
Charley Maher, social media editor at Bellingcat, also told Full Fact: “This is the fifth video we have come across, created in the style of a BBC report and quoting falsified research from our organisation. We have made public statements on our social media about all five videos, hoping to clarify that this is, what appears to be, a targeted disinformation campaign.
“All five of the fake videos cover topics that implicate Ukrainian political figures in unsavoury activities, particularly on the theme of corruption. We have seen that the videos were circulated on Pro-Kremlin channels.”
Referring to this video, Bellingcat founder, Eliot Higgins, said on X: “Another fake Bellingcat-BBC video has emerged.”
The clip claims that Gen Zaluzhnyi was unofficially paid $53 million as a severance package to leave Ukraine’s armed forces and become Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK. It claims Gen Zaluzhnyi has renounced his political ambitions in Ukraine as part of the deal.
It suggests this might be a “plot of the British intelligence agencies” to “preserve a significant political figure in Ukraine once the collapse of Ukrainian political power becomes irreversible”.
While President Zelenskyy has recently appointed Gen Zalyzhnyi as Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK (sending a formal request for approval by the British government), Full Fact could find no credible media reports that Zalyzhnyi received any such sum of money.
Gen Zaluzhnyi was appointed the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces in July 2021. He oversaw Ukraine’s war effort following Russia’s invasion in February 2022 until he was dismissed from the role in February 2024.
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Image courtesy of President Of Ukraine from Україна |
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this is not a genuine report by the BBC or genuine research by Bellingcat.
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