00:00Why was Ukraine's U.S. ambassador accused of stealing champagne after the Washington Media Dinner shooting?
00:10Who is the woman in this viral social media clip, examining bottles of wine amid the chaos following the shooting
00:17at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on the 25th of April?
00:20Some social media users claim that it's Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Olga Stephanishina, with many posts racking up
00:27hundreds of thousands of views.
00:29In fact, the woman in question is not Stephanishina. The woman sitting leaving with the bottles was wearing a black
00:35slit dress under a black fur coat, while Stephanishina wore a silver ruffled feather ensemble, which we can see in
00:42the before and after photos of the incident that she shared on her Facebook account.
00:46We weren't able to independently verify the identity of the woman featured in the footage circulated across social media, but
00:52we can confirm that it is not Olga Stephanishina.
00:55Certain users have also tried to link the false claims about Stephanishina to an ongoing and unrelated investigation by the
01:02National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
01:05The NABU, alongside Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, accuses Stephanishina of complicity in the embezzlement of more than 2
01:14.5 million Ukrainian revenue in public funds between 2013 and 2014, when she served as a unit head in the
01:21Ministry of Justice.
01:22That was the equivalent of around 225,000 euros at the time.
01:28Stephanishina has consistently maintained her innocence and argues that any wrongdoing was a legacy from a previous political era.
01:35The White House Correspondents Dinner has been a breeding ground for misinformation, sparking conspiracy theories that the attack was a
01:42false flag operation.
01:43Pro-Russian narratives also often falsely accused Ukrainians of criminal activity tied to significant news events in an effort to
01:51discredit them and weaken Western support for Kyiv.
Comments