Did Volodymyr Zelenskyy use US aid to buy yachts? No, that’s False

In the two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States has sent Ukraine more than $75 billion in military and humanitarian aid. But some social media users are claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is misusing the funds.

A Feb. 19 Instagram post shared an excerpt from a Nov. 27 episode of the "Redacted" podcast in which co-host Clayton Morris said Zelenskyy "somehow managed to buy two multimillion-dollar yachts … totaling $75 million." (Redacted removed this episode from its YouTube and Facebook accounts. Copies and a transcript of the video are still available online.)

Morris cited documents that he said showed Zelenskyy purchased two luxury yachts, "Lucky Me" and "My Legacy," in October 2023 using two associates as proxies.

"Americans, of course, are paying for this luxury, though. Your tax dollars, so Zelenskyy can live in luxury," said Morris, who has previously shared false claims about Zelenskyy, including that he was becoming a U.S. citizen.

The Instagram post’s caption said, "It’s a good thing that we’re able to give the president of the #Ukraine #billions of dollars to buy these #yachts and live an extravagant lifestyle. I mean, to fight a #war against #Russia."

(Screengrab from Instagram)

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The purchase documents are inauthentic as they include outdated information. The yachts purportedly bought by Zelenskyy’s associates are still for sale.

The documents are titled "Memorandum of Agreement approved by the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association." However, the organization that supposedly approved this 2023 sale changed its name to MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association in 2008. MYBA also uses a different logo now than the one shown on the documents.

A blank version of MYBA’s memorandum of agreement document from 2005 is available to download for free online.

The two yachts were supposedly purchased by Boris and Serhiy Shefir, close friends and business partners of Zelenskyy’s. Before Zelenskyy was elected Ukraine’s president in 2019, he and the Shefir brothers worked together at the film production company Kvartal 95 Studio.

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“NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says that ‘if Trump surrenders Ukraine to Putin, he will personally expel the United States from the alliance.’”

Boris Shefir supposedly purchased the yacht called "Lucky Me" for $24.9 million on Oct. 18, 2023, one of the documents says. However, as of Feb. 21, the luxury yacht company BehneMar still listed the yacht for sale for 19 million euros, or about $20.5 million U.S. dollars.

A week after Boris Shefir’s purported purchase, Serhiy Shefir supposedly purchased the  "My Legacy" yacht for $49.75 million on Oct. 25, 2023, the other document says. However, as of Feb. 21, this yacht was also still listed for sale for about 45 million euros, or about $48 million U.S. dollars.

Although these purchases were fabricated, Zelenskyy’s financial relationship with Boris and Serhiy Shefir has been called into question in the past.

In 2021, the Pandora Papers revealed that a month before Zelenskyy was elected president, he transferred previously undisclosed shares in an offshore company, Maltex Multicapital Corp., to Serhiy Shefir, who later joined Zelenskyy’s administration. Boris Shefir was also a part-owner of Maltex, but he said he was unaware of the offshore arrangement, the nonprofit Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported at the time.

Multiple government agencies and hundreds of personnel are overseeing the U.S. aid sent to Ukraine. Experts told PolitiFact in February 2023 that there are checks in place to prevent misuse, such as funneling economic aid through the World Bank and humanitarian aid through nongovernmental aid groups.

The Senate recently passed a $95 billion emergency spending package that would allocate additional funding to support Ukraine, as well as aid for Israel and Gaza. But the package faces Republican opposition in the House.

We rate the claim that Zelenskyy used U.S. aid funds to buy two yachts for $75 million False.