Fake BBC report spreads false declare that Zelensky has a stolen portray | EUROtoday

A faux BBC News report that falsely accuses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of displaying a stolen portray has been circulating on X since April 21.

The footage seems to indicate the Ukrainian president sitting in his workplace. Underneath him, what seems to be a BBC News banner reads: “Stolen Cézanne painting identified in Zelensky’s video.”  Indeed, there’s a portray by the French painter hanging on the wall behind Zelensky.

The portray, known as “Nature morte aux cerises” or “Still Life with Cherries” in English, was stolen in late March 2026 from a museum within the Italian area of Parma together with two different work: one by Auguste Renoir and one other by Henri Matisse. The accounts sharing the faux BBC information report accuse Zelensky of getting the stolen portray by way of a mafia-like community of organised crime.

The picture was notably shared by an account that helps American manosphere influencer Dan Bilzerian on X in a submit that garnered greater than 300,000 views. The screengrab was taken from a video made to appear like a BBC information programme that lasts 1’30”.

The information report begins with the background in regards to the theft of the work. Then, it claims that the stolen portray was noticed hanging on the wall in Zelensky’s workplace in a video that the Ukrainian president posted of himself in mid-April – a video that was later deleted. The faux information report even options the video supposedly deleted by Zelensky, the place you may, certainly, see the stolen portray behind him.

Fake information report and doctored footage of Zelensky

In only a few hours, simply one X submit (which was later deleted) that includes this faux information report garnered greater than 400,000 views. However, after we searched the BBC’s web site, there was no signal of this information report. The FRANCE 24 Observers staff additionally contacted the British media outlet straight. In no unsure phrases, they stated the video in query was “fake”.

So the place did the footage exhibiting the stolen Cézanne in Zelensky’s workplace come from? It seems that the footage was doctored: the portray was added to an actual video of Zelensky. The unique video was posted on Zelensky’s YouTube web page on January 19, 2026.

We discovered the unique video that was used within the faux BBC information report by finishing up a reverse picture search (to learn the way, take a look at our useful information). We checked with our colleagues at RFI’s Ukrainian service they usually confirmed that the Ukrainian president says precisely the identical factor within the unique video and the doctored video. The backdrop can be equivalent, apart from one element: the portray behind the president differs within the two movies. Thus, we had been capable of conclude that a picture of Cézanne’s portray was edited in, masking the portray that basically hangs on his wall (see beneath).

Regularly imitating media retailers

A faux information report made to appear like it comes from a trusted media supply – and one which criticises Zelensky straight – is straight out of the handbook of a Russian disinformation community known as Storm-1516, as highlighted by the Gnida Project, which screens this Russian community.

The faux information report was shared by X account Johnny Midnightwhich our staff has recognized on a number of events as one of many principal vectors of those disinformation operations (you may take a look at earlier reviews by clicking right here or right here).

This community, which has been energetic for the previous three years, is assumed to have been behind quite a few disinformation operations focusing on France and Western international locations, as indicated in a number of reviews, together with one by the French authorities physique tasked with combating international interference, Viginum.

The US Treasury Department publicly linked Storm-1516, which was already energetic in the course of the 2024 US elections, to Unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) in addition to the Moscow-based suppose tank the Center for Geopolitical Expertise.

In February 2026, this community circulated one other faux information report. The report, made to appear like it got here from French media outlet France Soir, falsely claimed that Emmanuel Macron was straight implicated within the Epstein recordsdata.

This article has been translated from the unique in French by Brenna Daldorph.