UK journalist's ID stolen to spread Zelensky corruption disinformation
- Published on September 19, 2025 at 23:26
- 7 min read
- By Eduard STARKBAUER, AFP Slovakia
- Translation and adaptation Mia DOUGLAS , AFP USA
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"#Ukraine's anti-corruption official exposes #Zelensky's $1.2B real estate empire. It shows that US taxpayers were just funding the largest corruption scheme in the world," says an August 26, 2025 post on X.
The post, and others on X, include a video claiming "Olena K" -- a purported investigator from Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) -- fled to Europe after leading a task force that tracked offshore wealth transfers that Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials made to purchase luxury properties.
The revelations are credited to an August 26 article from a website called the "London Telegraph."
Similar posts claiming Zelensky misused funds to purchase properties across Europe and the United Arab Emirates spread widely, including in Czech, Croatian, Serbian, German, Romanian, French, Slovak, Spanish, and Italian.
The claims follow the passing of a law on July 22 that stripped the NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of their independence and placed them under the supervision of the prosecutor general, himself appointed by Ukraine's head of state.
Zelensky reversed those changes July 31, restoring the bodies' independence following an outcry from the country's allies and the first anti-government street demonstrations since the Russian invasion in 2022.
But despite concerns over safeguards for Ukraine's anti-graft organizations, there is no evidence to support the claims from the London Telegraph article.
AFP asked NABU in a September 10, 2025 email about the existence of "Olena K." A spokesperson said no such employee has ever worked there. They also said they were unaware of the purported bank transfers described in the London Telegraph story.
Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation also labeled the claims as false on X (archived here).
British journalist misrepresented
The London Telegraph article is credited to a "Charlotte Davies" -- the same author of all 12 of the stories published under the website's "EUROPE" section between August 24 and 27.
But a reverse image search revealed the woman pictured to be British freelance journalist Helen Brown, who uses the same photo on her X profile (archived here). Brown contributes to The Independent, BBC, Sky News, and The Daily Telegraph.
"I'm horrified to see my byline profile hijacked by unknown parties and linked to a false name and bogus publication," she told AFP September 13. "I've never reported on Zelensky or his financial affairs. Readers need to be vigilant when reading such posts on social media."
The Daily Telegraph also published an interview with Brown on September 14 about the fake article.
The site, londontelegraph.uk, contains several suspicious elements, including domain registration data showing it does not belong to a standard media company in the United Kingdom and links that lead to profiles of WordPress's generic website creator service.
The site's design resembles The Daily Telegraph newspaper's, but it was created August 14, just two weeks prior to the publication of the "Olena K" article. It has not posted a new article since August 27.
False video elements
The video accompanying the article on the London Telegraph website uses a generic television news background that is freely available on stock websites (archived here and here).
The video's image of documents claimed to prove massive fraud are also related to a completely different case, a reverse image search revealed.
The same photo was featured in an article about the investigation into treason by Ukrainian MP Fedor Christenko. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office published the real files on its website, with no connection to the president (archived here).
AFP also analyzed the video's audio track.
The Fraunhofer Institute's audio authenticity assessment tool, deepfake-total.com, recorded a high probability that it is a deepfake.
Further analysis using the Hiya voice-cloning detection tool within the Verification Plugin assessed that the voices were "very likely" generated using artificial intelligence.
Disinformation campaign
Zelensky is frequently targeted by disinformation aimed at undermining Western support and discrediting him and the Ukrainian government.
AFP previously debunked claims that Zelensky bought a villa near Berlin, a Mercedes once owned by Adolf Hitler and a French luxury ski hotel.
Many past campaigns against Zelensky also placed fabricated information on credible-looking websites.
NewsGuard, a misinformation watchdog, said the London Telegraph is linked to the Russian-backed disinformation campaign Storm-1516, which also pushed disinformation during the 2024 US election.
In 2021, Zelensky was named in the Pandora Papers, an extensive investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in which hundreds of people were accused of hiding assets in offshore companies (archived here). The investigation revealed that two offshore companies belonging to Zelensky's partners were used to purchase three upmarket properties in London.
But there is "no sign that Zelensky himself was a part of the London property deals," the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project wrote.
More of AFP's reporting on misinformation about Ukraine is available here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
