Declare:
Ukrainian first woman Olena Zelenska spent $1,100,000 on Cartier jewellery and bought a salesman fired within the course of throughout a go to to the U.S. along with her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in September 2023.
Ranking:
On Oct 4, 2023, a declare went viral that stated Ukraine’s first woman, Olena Zelenska, had spent $1.1 million in New York Metropolis throughout a September 2023 journey to the U.S. to garner extra army support.
The declare in all circumstances cited relies on a Sept. 30 YouTube video uploaded by consumer “Marshall Leonard” purporting to point out a display recording of one other video from Instagram. That Instagram video got here from a consumer named attractive.bb.jeanette, whose account is now personal and devoid of public content material. The person within the video describes herself as a latest immigrant from Benin who had weeks earlier landed a job as a gross sales intern at Cartier’s Fifth Avenue Mansion.
As described in myriad copy-and-pasted variations of this similar story and in that YouTube video, this worker allegedly witnessed a impolite Zelenska spending a big sum of cash on jewellery and in the end getting the worker fired from her dream job:
In keeping with data collected by Boukari Ouédraogo from the Cartier retailer ex-employee, Olena Zelenska visited the boutique throughout her and her husband’s go to to New York. “I attempted to take her on a fast tour, however she wasn’t ,” the ex-employee additional remembers.
Zelenska’s go to to the posh boutique ended up in a really sudden method as she snapped on the worker who was making an attempt to help her with a “Who stated I want your opinion?” rant. After that, in accordance with the boutique ex-worker, Zelenska had a chat with the supervisor. The ex-worker has no thought what the dialogue was about however the subsequent day she bought fired from the boutique.
After receiving a “you’re fired” name the subsequent day after Zelenska’s go to, the ex-employee determined to share her story concerning the weird encounter on the Instagram. She has managed to sneak away a replica of a receipt containing Zelenska’s purchases whereas packing her private belongings on the boutique.
In keeping with the receipt, Zelenska has bought a white gold bracelet with diamonds, a white gold necklace with diamonds and emeralds, and white gold earrings with diamonds, totaling $1,100,000.
The woman says she wouldn’t have gone public if Zelenska “had simply spent all these stolen cash [sic] and moved ahead to the subsequent luxurious model retailer.” Nonetheless, the choice of the Ukrainian president’s spouse to destroy the woman’s profession for no motive has actually pissed her off.
Questionable Sources
This similar copied textual content went viral on pro-Kremlin accounts on Telegram — a social media/messaging app standard in Russia and Ukraine — main some teams like The Centre for Countering Disinformation to label the hassle pro-Russian propaganda.
The 2 earliest shops Snopes can determine that shared the declare had been the Nigerian web site The Nation and the Zimbabweian web site iHarare on Oct. 2, 2023. Each attributed their reporting to a person named Boukari Ouédraogo, whose connection to both Cartier in New York Metropolis, the alleged fired intern, or both of those purported information shops was by no means defined.
Regardless, the declare that Zelenska was in a position to store at Cartier on Fifth Avenue throughout a visit to New York in October 2023 is suspect as a result of it’s practically equivalent to a declare made about her on a visit to France in December 2022. In that occasion, the declare originated from a junk information web site with a satire label and was unfold closely by anti-Ukraine accounts worldwide.
Simply as the present information story concerning the New York journey has been used, that Paris story was additionally offered as an alleged juxtaposition to the help that Ukraine was requesting from Western nations. As Ukrainska Pravda noticed, the latest iteration lays it on a bit thick.
Not possible Timeline
Whatever the ambiguous sourcing and suspect messaging, there is no such thing as a believable state of affairs that locations Zelenska wherever close to Cartier on Fifth Avenue in New York Metropolis on Sept. 22, 2023, the date proven on the bill within the viral video. That is as a result of she and her husband left New York Metropolis on the night of Sept. 20, and left the USA fully on the night of the Sept. 21.
Some defending the declare have argued that the date on the bill doesn’t essentially replicate the acquisition date. With out interrogating the deserves of that declare, there is no such thing as a conceivable time during which Zelenska might have traveled — undetected — to the Fifth Avenue Cartier Mansion for a procuring spree throughout this journey to North America.
The journey befell between September 18, when the couple arrived in New York Metropolis, and Sept. 22, when the couple left Canada. The journey concerned not solely these two cities, but in addition a go to to Washington, D.C., to fulfill with congressional and different leaders, and U.S. President Joe Biden and first woman Jill Biden, as described by pool reporter Marek Walkuski of Polskie Radio:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in New York on Monday September 18. He started his go to to the U.S. by visiting the Staten Island College Hospital the place critically wounded Ukrainian troopers bear remedy and rehabilitation.
On Tuesday [Sept. 19] he gave a speech on the UN Normal Meeting and on Wednesday addressed [Sept. 20] the UN Safety Council. In New York Zelenskyy held [a] collection of conferences with leaders [and] additionally met with the President of the European Council, President of the European Fee and the UN Secretary Normal. Zelenskyy held a separate assembly with the U.S. Particular Consultant for Ukraine’s Financial Restoration Penny Pritzker.
In New York Volodymyr Zelenskyy additionally met with enterprise leaders, Wall Avenue CEO’s and diplomats, together with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Earlier than visiting the White Home [on Sept 21] Zelenskyy met with leaders of Congress and visited [the] Pentagon the place he met with Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin.
For a lot of of those occasions, together with the U.N. Normal Meeting speech and the conferences on the White Home, Zelenska was photographed accompanying her husband. At occasions when the 2 had been separated, Zelenska had her personal, well-documented public occasions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s spouse, Olena Zelenska, attends the speech of her husband throughout the United Nations (U.N.) Normal Meeting on Sept. 19, 2023, in New York Metropolis.
When Zelenskyy was visiting Ukrainian troops at Staten Island College Hospital after their arrival on Sept. 18, Zelenska appeared on the U.N. occasion celebrating Worldwide Equal Pay Day 2023, “the place she spoke concerning the state of affairs with pay for Ukrainian girls,” in accordance with the official web site of the president of Ukraine.
On Sept. 19, Zelenskyy addressed the U.N. Normal Meeting with Zelenska in attendance. The president additionally met with a number of different world leaders that day. Throughout these conferences, Zelenska met with the director of the World Well being Group (WHO) and spoke on the U.N. occasion, “Combating for the Future: Ukrainian Youngsters in Battle,” partially to “draw consideration to the horrific crimes towards youngsters dedicated day by day by the Russian occupiers in Ukraine, and to the issue of returning deported youngsters,” in accordance with the president’s web site.
On Sept. 20, Zelenskyy addressed the U.N. Safety Council. On the similar time, Zelenska attended a gathering of the Clinton World Initiative, which is a part of the Clinton Basis, to obtain the “Clinton World Citizen Award for her extraordinary management amid unimaginably troublesome circumstances and for being a forceful advocate for peace and a relentless champion of her decided folks,” in accordance with the Clinton Basis.
On Sept. 21, the couple traveled early within the morning to Washington, D.C. There, Zelenskyy met with congressional and Pentagon leaders whereas Zelenska gave remarks at Georgetown College. The couple reunited for his or her look with the Bidens on the White Home. That night time, they left Washington for Toronto, Canada, arriving on the coincidentally named Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier Worldwide Airport that night.
On Sept. 22 — the day of the purported Cartier spending spree in New York — Zelenskyy addressed the Canadian Parliament alongside Zelenska and took part in a rally with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later that night time. The couple returned to Ukraine following that occasion.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, proper, and Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first woman, on the Home of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.
For these causes, the Cartier journey couldn’t have occurred on Sept. 22, as indicated within the viral video, and nearly definitely, primarily based on how packed each of their schedules had been, couldn’t have occurred on any of the times previous to that — not less than not with out media consideration.
Due to these information, mixed with the questionable sourcing of the story and its similarity to different, latest false claims about Zelenska, Snopes charges the declare as “False.”
Sources:
Cole, Brendan. “Reality Test: Did Zelensky’s Spouse Go on $40K Procuring Spree in Paris?” Newsweek, 21 Dec. 2022, https://www.newsweek.com/zelenska-zelensky-ukraine-russia-paris-france-shopping-spree-1768736.
Combating for the Future: Ukrainian Youngsters in Battle | UN Net TV. 19 Sept. 2023, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1fejd3g14.
Masikati, Vincent. “Olena Zelenska Allegedly Spends $1,100,000 on Cartier Jewellery, Will get Gross sales Worker Fired?” iHarare Information, 25 Sept. 2023, https://iharare.com/olena-zelenska-allegedly-spends-1100000-on-cartier-jewelry-gets-sales-employee-fired/.
Norton, Tom. “Reality Test: Did Zelensky’s Spouse Spend $1.1 Million at Cartier in New York?” Newsweek, 5 Oct. 2023, https://www.newsweek.com/olena-zelenska-first-lady-ukraine-million-dollar-shopping-trip-new-york-cartier-1832373.
“Olena Zelenska in New York: If Childhood Is below Menace in One Nation, It Is below Menace In all places.” President of Ukraine, 20 Sept. 2023, https://www.president.gov.ua/en/information/olena-zelenska-u-nyu-jorku-yaksho-ditinstvo-pid-zagrozoyu-v-85729.
“Olena Zelenska on the Sidelines of the UN Normal Meeting: Solidarity Stays the Solely Treatment towards Barbarism and Aggression.” President of Ukraine, 19 Sept. 2023, https://www.president.gov.ua/en/information/olena-zelenska-na-polyah-ga-oon-solidarnist-zalishayetsya-ye-85689.
“OLENA ZELENSKA, POPE FRANCIS, MICHAEL J. FOX, AI WEI WEI, EDDIE NDOPU, PADMA LAKSHMI, AND MORE: 14 VOICES THAT INSPIRED US TO ‘KEEP GOING’ AT #CGI2023.” Clinton Basis, 27 Sept. 2023, https://www.clintonfoundation.org/tales/olena-zelenska-pope-francis-michael-j-fox-ai-wei-wei-eddie-ndopu-and-padma-lakshmi-x-voices-that-inspire-us-to-keep-going-from-cgi2023/.
“Olena Zelenska Spends $1,100,000 on Cartier Jewellery, Will get Gross sales Worker Fired.” The Nation, 2 Oct. 2023, https://thenationonlineng.internet/olena-zelenska-spends-1100000-on-cartier-jewelry-gets-sales-employee-fired/.
Olena Zelenska Spent $1100000 on Cartier Jewellery in NYC. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKwuE4LlHk. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.
Pool Experiences of September 21, 2023 | The American Presidency Undertaking. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/paperwork/pool-reports-september-21-2023. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.
“Russians Unfold Faux about Zelenska Shopping for US$1 Price of Jewelry in US.” Ukrainska Pravda, https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/information/2023/10/5/7422752/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.
“Ukraine’s Zelensky Wraps Day’s Itinerary in Canada with Look in Entrance of Supporters in Toronto.” The Globe and Mail, 22 Sept. 2023. www.theglobeandmail.com, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-volodymyr-zelenskyy-canada-trudeau-visit/.
“We Must Save Not Solely Lives, however Additionally Their High quality – Olena Zelenska throughout a Assembly with WHO Director-Normal.” President of Ukraine, 19 Sept. 2023, https://www.president.gov.ua/en/information/treba-ryatuvati-ne-lishe-zhittya-i-jogo-yakist-olena-zelensk-85701.