A real estate company that sold the villa in October denied any connection between the buyer and Ukraine and refuted claims that a bunker was being built on the property
Russian sources have spread a story claiming that Volodymyr Zelensky, through a shell company Aldorante LTD, has purchased a luxurious villa on the French island of Saint Barthélemy for 18 million euros and has begun building an underground bunker on the property. Propagandists claim that this is part of the Ukrainian president’s alleged “escape plan.” They cite French media as their source, but no evidence of the alleged French-language video with “proof” and “documents” can be found online.
This information from the propagandists is a meticulous fabrication, part of a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Volodymyr Zelensky and his circle in the eyes of Europeans. From the address given on the “documents” in the video, it is clear that they refer to Villa Stellae – a luxurious mansion overlooking the ocean, with six bedrooms, a terrace, and a private garden, located on the resort island of Saint Barthélemy. The villa was managed by local real estate company Sibarth until October 2024, when the company posted on its Facebook page: “Our sincere thanks to the seller for placing his trust in us, and warm congratulations to the new owners on acquiring such a prestigious residence.” Propagandists created the fake based on this publication.
However, Zarek Honneysett, the company’s CEO, whom we contacted to verify the information, completely denied the claim. According to him, Sibarth did indeed organize the sale of the property, but “the buyer is not Aldorante LTD but a French company with French shareholders, having no connections to Ukraine. Furthermore, the reported price is incorrect, and I can confirm that no work is being carried out on the house, contrary to the insinuations made in the video.” In fact, the house was purchased by another company for a different amount, and no underground bunker is being built on the property.
This is not the first time we have debunked similar fakes about allegedly expensive purchases by Volodymyr Zelensky. For example, we previously debunked reports that the president bought Sting’s Italian villa for 75 million euros and that his wife, Olena Zelenska, bought a Bugatti Tourbillon car for 4.5 million euros. Since such fakes are aimed at Western audiences, propagandists put considerable effort into fabricating them, sometimes even creating fake media in foreign languages that become the “original source” of the “news” in the network. How to identify such malicious resources we discussed in the piece Web of Lies: How to Spot Fake Western Media Created by Russian Propaganda.
