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Leonardo DiCaprio at Netflix's "Don't Look Up" World Premiere, Dec. 5, 2021, in New York City. (Photo by John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx)
No, Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t give $10 million to Ukraine
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- Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t donate $10 million to Ukraine, but blogs reported otherwise.
A picture of actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio is one of many being shared on social media with the claim that he gave $10 million to Ukraine.
"THANK YOU LEO!!!!" one post says with several Ukrainian flag emojis.
But the evidence to support this claim is shaky, and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
PolitiFact’s efforts to reach representatives of DiCaprio were not successful. But CNN reporter Daniel Dale tweeted on March 9 that a source close to the actor said DicCaprio didn’t donate $10 million and that he has no relatives from Ukraine. (Some posts online have said his grandmother is from there).
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"DiCaprio stands with Ukraine and did make donations to a variety of humanitarian organizations trying to help Ukraine, the source said, but it wasn't $10 million, wasn't to Ukraine's government or military as some stories said, and wasn't connected to his grandmother," Dale tweeted.
Journalist Jane Lytvynenko, senior research fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, also pointed out some red flags with the claim.
Featured Fact-check
A story that has since been deleted on a blog called "Polish News" said that DiCaprio had "allocated" $10 million to support Ukraine, citing as a source the International Visegrad Fund, a donor organization based in Slovakia. But a spokesperson for the fund told publications that they weren’t aware of DiCaprio making such a donation.
Several news outlets, including the Independent, published the misinformation and have since corrected their reports. We found no original credible reporting that DiCaprio gave $10 million to Ukraine.
We rate this claim False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, March 5, 2022
Daniel Dale tweet, March 9, 2022
Jane Lytvynenko tweet, March 9, 2022
The Independent, Leonardo DiCaprio donates funds to Ukraine after incorrect reports circulate online, March 9, 2022
Snopes, Did Leonardo DiCaprio Donate $10M to Ukraine via International Visegrad Fund?, March 9, 2022
GSA News, Hollywood Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, Donates US$10,000,000 to Ukraine, March 5, 2022
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No, Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t give $10 million to Ukraine
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