00:00Does Zelenskyy have a stolen painting in his office?
00:07Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been accused of hanging a stolen painting in his office.
00:12The claim has been circulating on X, where several accounts share what appear to be a BBC News interview with
00:18him.
00:19In the footage, a painting is visible in the background, identified as nature morte aux cerises,
00:24or still live with cherries in English, by French artist Paul Cezanne.
00:27But none of this stands up to scrutiny.
00:30It is true that the artwork was stolen in late March, along with two other masterpieces by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
00:36and 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 Zelenskyy'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.
01:16A comparison of both versions shows that the painting in the background is different, meaning the stolen painting was artificially
01:23inserted into the video.
01:25At the time the interview was recorded, the word that actually hung in that spot was by Ukrainian artist Andry
01:31Chebotaru depicting Mont-de-Mergy in Crimea, the artist's home region.
01:36He told the cube that several of his works were gifted to Zelenskyy by friends.
01:39And this is not an isolated case.
01:42In October 2025, similar pro-Kremlin networks falsely claimed Ukrainian refugees had been arrested by French police in connection with
01:50last year's Louvreist.
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