A Russian disinformation network published a fake BBC report that a painting by Paul Cézanne was stolen in Italy from the office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. This has been reported France 24 and euronews In its investigation issued on April 24.
The fake report began circulating on social media network X on April 21. The recorded footage shows a banner similar to the BBC News logo with the caption: “Stolen Cézanne painting found in Zelensky video.” The recording shows that behind Zielinsky on the wall is Cézanne’s “Still Life with Cherry.” This painting was stolen from a museum in Italy at the end of last March.
The accounts spreading fake news claimed that Zelensky received the painting from the mafia. Within a few hours, the fake report had been viewed more than 400,000 times on just one account on the social media network X.
However, no such report was published on the BBC website. Representatives of the British media company reported that the video in question was fake.
As the journalists demonstrated, the fake report used footage from a video that appeared on Zelensky’s YouTube channel on January 19. Cézanne’s painting was added to the “Report”, replacing the painting by Ukrainian artist Andriy Chebotaro, which already hangs in the office of the President of Ukraine.
Vladimir Zelensky, commenting to Euronews, denied false claims that a stolen painting had been hung in his office.
Spreading a fake story disguised as a message from a reliable media source is a classic playstyle of a disinformation network linked to Russia’s main intelligence agency, the Genida Project, which monitors the Russian network, told FRANCE 24.
Euronews reports that the video was distributed through the Matryoshka network of pro-Kremlin bots, which typically spread fake news on behalf of respected media outlets. “Matryoshka” linked to Russian authorities.
Representatives of European countries have repeatedly accused the Russian authorities of trying to interfere in the internal affairs of European countries (Moscow denied this). Thus, in Romania in 2025, due to suspicions of Russian interference, the voting results in the presidential elections were annulled. In the European Union in February 2026 creature The Center for Democratic Resilience is dedicated to countering disinformation from Russia and other authoritarian regimes.