On October 9, 2023, a Georgian-language Facebook user published a post, according to which a letter signed by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was leaked on the Internet. The letter is addressed to King Philip VI of Spain and asks the Spanish monarch to grant citizenship to several dozen Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens, including the children of Ukrainian high-ranking officials such as Zelenskyy, Reznikov, Kuleba, and Stepanchuk. A letter written in Spanish is attached to the post as alleged evidence.
Since October 5, the Kremlin’s propaganda media (1,2,3), including Pravda and Tsargrad, and Russian-language Facebook accounts have also published identical information (1,2). The information was also disseminated on the Russian blog platform LiveJournal (1,2).
The disseminated letters are fabricated. Their authenticity was denied by Peter Stano, Lead Spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, in a comment to the “Myth Detector.” There are also spelling mistakes in the Spanish version of the letter, and in both letters, Ukrainian names and surnames are written in Russian transliteration.
The letters disseminated on the internet are fabricated. According to the letters, the appeal was sent on September 8, although letters with similar content cannot be found on the official websites of the European Council or the European Commission.
In order to further verify the information, “Myth Detector” contacted the press office of the European Commission and the European Council. In a comment to “Myth Detector,” the European Commission’s spokesperson for foreign and security policy, Peter Stano, confirmed that the circulated letters are fake.
In addition, there are additional details that indicate that the letters are forged; The Spanish version of the letter contains spelling mistakes that would not be found in the official text.
It is also worth noting that Ukrainian and Belarusian names are written according to the rules of Russian transliteration; for example, in the letter, it is written Alexey Reznikov, not Oleksii Reznikov, Kirill Zelensky, not Kyrylo Zelenskyy.
The Center for Countering Disinformation of Ukraine also debunked the misinformation that Ukrainian high-ranking officials are trying to get their children to obtain Spanish citizenship. The center noted that the Russian media, accompanied by fake letters, spread the information based on the fake page of the Ukrainian media УНИАН. Ukrainian fact-checking service StopFake also checked the disinformation about the letters.
About the Source
Koba Kusiani, the Georgian-language Facebook user who published the fabricated letters, is the chairman of the Euro-Asian Alliance, a pro-Russian non-governmental organization. On July 4, 2022, in the story aired on the Channel One of Russia, Kusiani voiced disinformation about the Lugar laboratory. In addition, Kusiani systematically spreads various fake content on social media.
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