This information is fake, as the Wall Street Journal never published such an article, and the screenshot circulating online is a fake.
Social media users are circulating a screenshot of an alleged publication by The Wall Street Journal, claiming that the Ukrainian delegation had to pay for their visit and stay in the US out of their own pockets. According to the claim, this is the first time that US President Donald Trump’s administration has refused to cover the costs of a foreign delegation.
Some users mockingly comment on the “news”: “Not only was he not fed or welcomed, he had to pay for everything himself.”
In reality, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has never published such information and the screenshot is most likely a fake.
There is no publication with this title on the WSJ website, and in fact the paper never reported anything similar. There was also no mention of this information in other media outlets which were closely following the visit of the Ukrainian delegation to the US.
The screenshot shows a publication entitled “Ukraine paid for its delegation’s visit and stay in the U.S.” under the “Politics” section of the WSJ website. However, no such publication exists. After checking the website’s archive using The Wayback Machine, StopFake concluded that such an article never appeared on the WSJ website. On 28 February, three articles were published in this section, none of which mentioned that the administration of US President Donald Trump had refused to pay for the Ukrainian delegation’s stay.
According to the Osavul service, the screenshot was posted simultaneously on two anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channels – Одесса Zа Победу! (Odessa Z for Victory!) and РУССКИЙ Z ХАРЬКОВ V (Russian Z Kharkiv V) – on the afternoon of 28 February, just hours before President Zelensky’s meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Later, on 3 March, the propaganda Telegram channel Украинский фреш (Ukrainian Fresh) distributed a video bearing the Bloomberg logo, which also claimed that for the first time in recent years the Ukrainian delegation had to pay for its own expenses in the U.S. The video quotes alleged statements by Howard (Shih-Ming) Hu, a professor of hotel management at Southern Utah University, claiming that each trip by the Ukrainian delegation could cost the U.S. budget between $4 and $7 million. However, this video, like the purported WSJ publication, is fake. Bloomberg has never published or distributed this video on its official platforms.
Howard Hu is a professor specialising in hotel, resort and restaurant management at Southern Utah University. His main areas of expertise include international cuisine, hotel management and culinary science. However, StopFake found no evidence in open sources that Hu made any comments about the Ukrainian delegation’s stay in the US on 28 February.
There is no publicly available information on whether the US paid for the Ukrainian delegation’s stay on 28 February, or whether such a practice existed before. However, official state visits to the US, especially visits to the White House, are financed in different ways, depending on the status of the visit and the agreements between the parties. Accommodation, transportation within the US and official receptions are usually covered by the US side, in particular by the State Department or other US government agencies. However, air travel is usually paid for by the host country.
Previously, StopFake debunked false information that the Grok AI system had allegedly shown Zelensky handcuffed behind bars in Times Square.
