Photos of French villa falsely tied to Ukrainian defense minister
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 9, 2023 at 22:11
- 4 min read
- By Robert BARCA, Matus KRCMARIK, AFP Slovakia, AFP USA
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"Ukraine Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov just purchased this 7 million euro mansion in Cannes, France for his daughter’s wedding present," says a July 17, 2023 post on Twitter, which is being rebranded as "X."
"Oleksii Reznikov is said to have a net worth of 1 million... just in case you wondered where all the money was going."
Another post sharing the video says: "Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov must be a happy man. Congrats on the extravagant mansion in Cannes, France for his daughter's wedding gift. Who needs transparency when you have American taxpayers funding your lavish lifestyle."
The same claim circulated in a July 20 episode of "The Jimmy Dore Show" viewed more than 140,000 times, as well as in Czech social media posts. The original July 12 video from TikTok user Vladyslav Yashchenko racked up 1.8 million views.
The narrator claims that in June 2023, Reznikov's daughter bought a villa in the city of Vallauris that has a swimming pool, an elevator and seven bedrooms.
"Reznikov does not care about our country, about the soldiers who give their lives for it," the Ukrainian voiceover says.
But AFP found no evidence supporting the claims.
Through a reverse image search on Google, AFP found several listings advertising the property for sale as of August 9 (archived here and here).
The Cannes-based firm Michael Zingraf Real Estate is listed as the "sole agent" for the house (archived here). Using satellite images, visual clues and nearby landmarks, AFP geolocated the property on Google Maps.
Michael Zingraf Real Estate says the house has eight bedrooms and costs €11.75 million -- not €7 million, as the post claims.
An agency representative told AFP on July 27 that claims about the property's sale are "entirely false" and that the house was still for sale.
"On behalf of the Michael Zingraf real estate agency, as the sole agent handling the sale of this property, I can confirm that the property has not yet been sold to anyone," the representative said. "I can also confirm that it is still available for the price advertised on our website."
The firm said the property has been listed since October 2021. A member of the Dutch Roozen family, which French records indicate owns the house, confirmed to AFP on August 7 that the property "is still for sale."
"It has never been the subject of negotiation or contact of any kind with foreign clients," the person told AFP.
Old images
Contrary to the claims swirling online, Reznikov's daughter was married around 10 years ago -- and other photos shown in the clip are not new.
Reznikov posted the photo on the right in 2013 (archived here). It shows the defense minister and his daughter Anastasia Reznikova on her wedding day.
Ukrainian news outlet Channel 24 picked up the photo when Reznikov took office in 2021. The article says he has been married twice, has a son from his first marriage and has a daughter named Anastasia.
The photo on the left shows Reznikov with his second wife Julia Zoria, whom he married in 2020. Zoria shared the picture on her Facebook page in November 2021 (archived here).
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about Russia's invasion of Ukraine here.
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