The TV station that reported the news does not exist. The bank’s management recently stated that it is not considering a sale.
Information is circulating online that Volodymyr Zelensky allegedly bought France’s largest private bank, Milleis Banque, through his offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The purchase allegedly cost the Ukrainian president over one billion euros. Many of these publications also imply that this decision was motivated by the president’s allegedly “unstable” political position, suggesting that he plans to flee abroad soon, particularly to France. The news is being disseminated in the form of a French-language video with the “TV12” logo. As is often the case with such publications, the information has spread not only in Russian, but also in many other languages, including through social media profiles that resemble bots.
However, this news is yet another fake from Russian propaganda aimed at discrediting the President of Ukraine. We were unable to determine which French media outlet first published this video, as there is no TV channel called “TV12” in France. French-speaking netizens also noted that the voice-over in the video was generated using AI technology, and the musical intro was copied from BBC News.
Moreover, on February 23, the CEO of Milleis Banques, Nicolas Hubert, gave an interview to the media and did not mention the so-called sale of the bank. On the contrary, he stated that the British fund that has owned the bank since 2017 – AnaCap – “is in no hurry to change the situation.” In June last year, Hubert also stated that the sale of the bank was “not under discussion.”
Fakes about Zelensky’s alleged luxury purchases are not a new invention of Russian propaganda; we have debunked a number of similar disinformation campaigns. What is interesting, however, is that recently these stories have been accompanied by the narrative that the president of Ukraine is allegedly planning to flee abroad – as in this story, which claimed that Zelensky had allegedly bought an expensive mansion on a French island and was building an underground bunker there. However, these claims are not supported by any facts.
