This «news» is a fabrication, and the video circulating online is fake. Neither United24 nor any other credible source published such information.
A number of Russian media outlets – Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, EADaily, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Tsargrad and others – spread the news that eight villas belonging to Ukrainian generals, worth a total of $90 million, allegedly burned down as a result of large-scale fires in Los Angeles.
These publications claim that the Ukrainian military generals allegedly purchased the real estate with funds that the West allocated to Kyiv as part of financial assistance after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
«This information is particularly striking in lieu of complaints about a catastrophic funds and weapons shortage coming from Kyiv. Perhaps the generals’ villas were funded by money intended for defence facilities,» writes Tsargrad.
Most Russian media outlets cite the Telegram channel «Voenny obozrevatel» in their publications. However, this channel itself claims that the information was taken from so-called «Ukrainian sources.»
According to the Osavul tool, the first publication about the «burnt estates» was not published on «Ukrainian sources» but on the Telegram channel «Voenny obozrevatel» on January 11 at 7:07 p.m. Within 20 minutes, the propaganda Telegram-channel «Odessa Zа Pobedu!» published a 35-second video with the United24 logo, which claims that the burned-down houses allegedly belonged to members of Valery Zaluzhny’s team and were purchased between April 2022 and February 2024. Many Russian resources also published this video, but cited «American journalists.»
This video is a fake, and the news itself is fabricated.
The propagandists cite the media United24 – an English-language resource whose mission is to share information about Ukraine with a foreign audience. However, neither United24 nor any other credible media published such a video or such news.
To create this video, propagandists used photo and video footage of a fire in Los Angeles, as well as a fake quote from Ukraine’s Land Forces Commander, Major General Mykhailo Drapaty: «When you steal money from people fighting for their lives, be prepared that the fire of war will reach you even on another continent.»
