BlackRock did not ask Ukraine to 'stop burying dead soldiers on its land'

"BlackRock has asked that Ukrainian soldiers not be buried on the land it owns in Ukraine," read a simplified Chinese X post shared on August 3, 2024.

It said BlackRock representatives "have already bought 47 percent of Ukraine's land" and requested on a recent visit to Kyiv that "this land not be used for burials and that the bodies be cremated or disposed of in other ways."

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Screenshot of an X post sharing the false claim, taken on September 10, 2024

The post shows a photo of a cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine taken in January 2023 by a photographer from Reuters news agency (archived link).

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager headquartered in New York, provides advice to the Ukrainian government on its Ukraine Development Fund (UDF), which aims to attract investment to help rebuild the war-battered country (archived link).

Ukraine, known as the "breadbasket of Europe", is one of the world's major grain producers thanks to its fertile "black" soil (archived link).

Pro-Kremlin propaganda has suggested Western countries are providing financial support to Ukraine since Russia's invasion because they seek to exploit its resources. 

The false claim about BlackRock asking Ukraine to stop burials surfaced online in August, quickly spreading across Facebook, X and Telegram and in languages such as Russian, English, Serbian and French, racking up thousands of shares.

'Completely false'

However, a representative for BlackRock said the claim was baseless.

"This is completely false," the spokesperson told AFP on August 22. "BlackRock Inc. does not own any land in Ukraine."

A spokesperson for the land committee of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) told AFP on the same day: "We haven't heard about anything like that."

Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the US-based Oakland Institute think tank -- which has published reports on agricultral land reform in Ukraine -- confirmed BlackRock does not own land in the country, although it does hold other Ukrainian assets (archived link).

"According to our research over large land leases in Ukraine presented in our report; 'War and Theft, the Takeover of Ukraine's Agricultural Land', BlackRock doesn't own any land in Ukraine", he told AFP on August 22 (archived link).

Agricultural land privatisation began in Ukraine in 2021, Mousseau said, potentially providing indirect exposure to land assets, but no single investor could reach 47 percent of the country's total land mass in this way.

Foreigners are not permitted to buy agricultural land in Ukraine and can only buy non-agricultural land if they meet certain legal conditions, according to the Land Code of Ukraine (archived link).

"BlackRock owns part of Ukraine's debt through Eurobonds, which gives the company leverage over the country," Mousseau added.

"Ukraine has been forced by creditors to undertake an ongoing drastic structural adjustment program aiming at privatise all sectors of its economy."

Satirical Telegram channel

An AFP investigation found the misinformation originated on a satirical Telegram channel in 2023.

The false claim began circulating a few months after Ukraine announced plans in May that year to launch the Ukraine Development Fund (archived link).

By October, the misinformation had spread on various Russian-language websites, including here, here, here, and here.

Polish-language pro-Kremlin website Pravda-pl.com attributed the claim to ANNA News agency, which shares similar political affiliations, and a Telegram account in Polish called RuskiStatek. 

An ANNA News article from October 5, 2023 appeared to quote BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as saying: "We are seeing a completely irrational use of black soil by Ukrainians themselves".

However, BlackRock's name was not written in the standard format in the article, and a search of Telegram accounts using this incorrect spelling found posts in Russian here and here and in Belarussian here and here from 2023 (archived link).

An earlier post shared on a Telegram channel called "verysexydasha", dated September 20, 2023, warned: "Caution, fake and harsh satire is possible. Written is fiction, all coincidences are coincidental".

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Screenshot of a Telegram post sharing the false claim

Meanwhile, posts sharing the false claim in August 2024 said that BlackRock representatives made a "recent visit" to Kyiv. 

A spokesperson for the company confirmed on August 23 that the last official visit to Kyiv took place on May 5, 2023. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky also met representatives from BlackRock and JP Morgan at the Davos summit in Switzerland in January 2024 (archived links here, here and here).

The International Monetary Fund said on September 10 it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on an aid programme review that could open the door to $1.1 billion for the country (archived link).

The deal would see creditors -- including BlackRock, Pimco and other major institutional investors -- write billions off the nominal value of their holdings, and agree to a new payment schedule on terms more beneficial to Kyiv.

AFP has verified other misinformation about the war in Ukraine here.