00:00Does Zelensky have a stolen painting in his office?
00:07Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
00:09has been accused of hanging a stolen painting in his office.
00:12The claim has been circulating on X,
00:15where several accounts share what appear to be a BBC News interview with him.
00:18In the footage, a painting is visible in the background,
00:21identified as Nature Morte aux cerises,
00:24or Still Lied with Cerries in English,
00:26by French artist Paul Cézanne.
00:27But none of this stands up to scrutiny.
00:30It is true that the artwork was stolen in late March,
00:32along with two other masterpieces by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse
00:37from the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma in Italy.
00:40The theft was reportedly worth between 9 and 10 million euros.
00:45However, there is no evidence linking any of these stolen works to Zelensky's office.
00:50The presidency has also told the cube that the accusations are false.
00:54The supposed BBC report is entirely fabricated.
00:57The voiceover is AI-generated and elements of the Ukrainian presidential website have been digitally manipulated.
01:04This video is part of an anti-Ukrainian disinformation campaign spread by a Russian bot network called Matryoshka.
01:11The original footage comes from an interview with the Associated Press, recorded three months earlier.
01:17A comparison of both versions shows that the painting in the background is different,
01:21meaning the stolen painting was artificially inserted into the video.
01:25At the time the interview was recorded, the work that actually hung in that spot was by Ukrainian artist Andriy
01:31Chebotaru depicting Mont-de-Mergy in Crimea,
01:34the artist's home region.
01:36He told the cube that several of his works were gifted to Zelensky by friends.
01:39And this is not an isolated case.
01:41In October 2025, similar programming networks falsely claimed Ukrainian refugees had been arrested by French police in connection with last
01:50year's Louvreist.
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