Ukraine’s Zelenskyy did not purchase two luxury yachts in October. They’re still up for sale
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a photo after his interview with The Associated Press in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023. Zelenskyy has not recently purchased two multimillion-dollar yachts, despite online claims. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
CLAIM: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought two luxury yachts, named Lucky Me and My Legacy, through proxies for more than $75 million.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The companies selling each yacht confirmed to The Associated Press that they are still on the market.
THE FACTS: As the Russia-Ukraine war nears the two-year mark, social media users are falsely claiming that Zelenskyy recently purchased two multimillion-dollar yachts despite the devastating conflict.
“Ukrainian President Zelensky uses proxies to hide ownership of two yachts worth $75.000.000,” a post on X, formerly Twitter, states. “This man will go down in history as the person who destroyed his own country for fame and fortune.”
Many social media posts carrying the claim cite a Nov. 21 story from The Islander, an online publication, that reported Zelenskyy “is now ensnared in a scandal involving the alleged purchase of two luxury yachts, ‘Lucky Me’ and ‘My Legacy,’ worth a combined $75 million.”
The report pinned the supposed purchases on two of Zelenskyy’s associates, citing a video from a small YouTube channel that claimed to have documents showing them buying the yachts on behalf of the Ukrainian president.
But, according to the companies selling the boats, both vessels are still on the market.
“Burgess can confirm that MY LEGACY is currently for sale with Burgess as the exclusive listing brokerage house,” Nicci Perides, a spokesperson for the luxury yacht company, told the AP in an email. “We can confirm that the yacht has not been sold and therefore remains for sale.”
BehneMar, another luxury yacht company, similarly called claims about its listing for Lucky Me “totally wrong and false,” writing in a statement that it “can confirm that the yacht has not been sold and is still for sale with BehneMar as the exclusive listing company.”
The alleged sales documents read: “Memorandum of Agreement Approved by The Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association,” an outdated name of the group now called MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association. Its name changed in 2008 and the group now uses a different logo than the one that appears on the documents.
Blank versions of the documents shown in the YouTube video and on The Islander are available free online.
One of the supposed memorandums lists Lucky Me as being sold on Oct. 18 for $24.9 million to Boris Shefir, who worked with Zelenskyy at his production company Kvartal 95. The other states that My Legacy was sold exactly a week later for $49.75 million to Shefir’s brother, Serhiy Shefir, who also worked at Kvartal 95 and is now one of Zelenskyy’s top political aides.
Jane Adlington-Brumer, MYBA’s general secretary, told the AP that the documents appear to be pre-2012 versions of a memorandum of agreement “no longer endorsed by MYBA.” She added that MYBA “does not approve yacht sales.”
Asked about The Islander’s story, its co-founder Chay Bowes told the AP that the site “did not state that President Volodymyr Zelensky directly purchased the luxury yachts ‘Lucky Me’ and ‘My Legacy.” He noted that the story “highlighted allegations and connections involving his close associates.”
Zelenskyy’s financial relationship with the Shefir brothers has come under scrutiny in the past.
The Pandora Papers leak in 2021 led to reports that Zelenskyy had transferred his shares in an offshore company — Maltex Multicapital Corp — to Serhiy Shefir before his election to Ukraine’s presidency. An arrangement allowed Maltex to pay dividends to another company belonging to Zelenskyy’s wife, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported at the time.
Serhiy Shefir retained his stake in Maltex after he joined the Zelenskyy administration. Boris Shefir was named in the Pandora Papers as a part-owner of Maltex, but told the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in 2021 that he was unaware of the details of the offshore arrangement.
A spokesperson for Zelenskyy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.