The claim: Zelenskyy bought a $20 million mansion in Vero Beach, Florida
A Dec. 13 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) from right-wing activist and former Republican Senate candidate Lauren Witzke shows photos of a massive beachfront mansion and a document bearing a portrait of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“BREAKING: Zelensky reportedly buys $20 Million Dollar (sic) Mansion in Vero Beach, Florida,” reads the first line of the caption. It concludes by stating, “These are some photos we were sent of Zelensky’s recent purchase. CUT OFF UKRAINE!”
A similar post by Witzke on X, formerly Twitter, was shared more than 10,000 times in one day.
More from the USA TODAY Fact Check Team:
Our rating: False
Zelenskyy does not appear in any public records searches of property owners in that county. The pictured mansion is hundreds of miles from Vero Beach. As of Dec. 14, it remained on the market at an asking price of nearly $11 million.
Mansion is in Ponte Vedra Beach, has not been sold
Sending money to help Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia has become a sticking point in Congress, with some House Republicans threatening to withhold their support for aid. The social media post taps into that theme, claiming Zelenskyy “drained the U.S. Treasury dry.”
But the Ukrainian president did not spend $20 million on a mansion in a city on the central Florida coast, as the post claims.
Fact check: Ukraine-Russia war is ongoing; viral claim of Zelenskyy surrender is baseless
The home featured in the post is actually located in Ponte Vedra Beach – more than 200 miles north of Vero Beach – according to its listing on realtor.com. Zelenskyy’s name does not appear in searches of public records that list the property owners in either Indian River County (Vero Beach) or St. Johns County (Ponte Vedra Beach).
The photographed mansion was still on the market as of Dec. 14, Kim Bright, the property’s listing agent, told USA TODAY in a text message. Its listed price is$10.9 million. The property was most recently sold in 2019, according to a search of the county assessor’s online database.
The viral claim appears rooted in a Nov. 29 blog post on the website DC Weekly. The post offers no evidence to support its claims but cites an anonymous Secret Service agent as the source. The photo purportedly showing the writer of that post actually shows a different person – an author and former blogger for The New York Times.
USA TODAY reached out to DC Weekly but did not immediately receive a response.
The Facebook post also includes a photo of an American certificate of naturalization that was supposedly issued to Zelenskyy. But there are no credible reports that he has gone through the process of becoming a naturalized citizen.
A closer look at the document also reveals it to be a fabrication.
The photo of Zelenskyy in the document is an edited version of an image distributed to media outlets by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office. In both images, Zelenskyy is wearing the same jacket and shirt, and the garments are oriented identically with the left collar slightly opened.
And an authentic certificate of naturalization includes the person’s full name and signature, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The document shown in the post is missing Zelenskyy’s middle name of Oleksandrovych and a signature.
The social media posts echo a false claim previously debunked by USA TODAY that Zelenskyy purchased a $35 million home in Florida and has $1.2 billion in overseas bank accounts. A separate baseless assertion that Zelenskyy bought his parents an $8 million home was debunked by USA TODAY in 2022.
USA TODAY reached out to Witzke but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
- Kim Bright, Dec. 14, Text message exchange with USA TODAY
- Google Maps, accessed Dec. 14, Vero Beach, Florida, to 1263 Ponte Vedra Beach Blvd, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
- Realtor.com, accessed Dec. 14, 1263 Ponte Vedra Blvd
- Remax, accessed Dec. 14, 1263 Ponte Vedra Blvd
- Internet Archive, Dec. 14, Indian River County, FL
- Internet Archive, Dec. 14, St. Johns County, FL
- Internet Archive, Dec. 14, 1263 Ponte Vedra Blvd
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 10, New mother, leading a secular life, feels tuggings of her Jewish past
- The Moscow Times, Oct. 7, 2022, Moscow Fumes Over ‘Monster’ Zelensky’s Preemptive Strike Calls
- Deutsche Welle, Oct. 23, 2022, Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy slams Russian ‘dirty bomb’ claims
- President of Ukraine, Sept. 28, 2022, The greater unity we have, the more tangible Russian defeats are – President of Ukraine at the Athens Democracy Forum
- Citizenship and Immigration Services, Dec. 12, Chapter 3 – Certificate of Naturalization
- CNN, May 24, Volodymyr Zelensky Fast Facts
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