On December 12, the Georgian-language Facebook account “Eduard Jishkariani” published a post claiming that after Zelenskyy’s speech in the US Senate, Republican Senator Thom Tillis said in a conversation with CNN that America cannot help Ukraine with money because Ukrainian officials will buy yachts with this money. The author of the post claims that he wrote about the purchase of yachts by Ukrainians in the past as well, but Facebook accused him of spreading disinformation, which is why his content was restricted.
Thom Tillis has not made such a statement. In a conversation with CNN, he noted that Zelenskyy tried to convince the senators that the aid provided to Ukraine would indeed be used for the war and not for the purchase of yachts.
Republican Thom Tillis is a North Carolina state senator and a supporter of Ukraine. In November 2023, in an interview with Bloomberg, he said that he supports Israel and Ukraine and that there should be no problem of insufficient funds or termination of funding for Ukraine.
On December 12, Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US Senate, where he spoke about the need to continue military aid to Ukraine. After the President’s speech, Thom Tillis made a comment with CNN. According to him, the issue of corruption was raised because some senators said that they believed that Ukrainian officials would buy yachts with the financial aid provided by the US. Tillis also noted that Zelenskyy tried to dispel this perception by discussing the reforms that Ukraine has implemented together with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. According to the senator, important reforms have been implemented in Ukraine in this regard. Tillis concluded his conversation with CNN by noting that the president received a warm welcome in the Senate and that Zelenskyy spent the entire time convincing senators to continue funding Ukraine, not trying to pressure them.
It should be noted that Ohio Republican Senator James David Vance said in an interview on December 11 that he is currently against continuing the support for Ukraine, as this money could be used to buy a bigger yacht for one of Zelensky’s ministers. This comment was called complete nonsense and stupidity by Thom Tillis on the same day. In response, Vance argued that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in Europe and told the journalist that some Ukrainians got rich during the war and it would be naive to believe that this did not happen with the money allocated by the US.
Members of the Republican Party, including senators, have repeatedly discussed the problems of corruption in Ukraine. Some of them cite this as the main reason why they do not agree to the requests for additional financial assistance to Ukraine. Similarly, high-ranking officials of the US government have repeatedly stated that Ukraine needs to implement a strict anti-corruption policy, although according to them, they see positive steps in this regard in the country. Besides, according to US and European officials, there is no evidence that the aid provided to Ukraine was stolen by someone.
Members of the Republican Party, including senators, have repeatedly discussed the problems of corruption in Ukraine. Some of them cite this as the main reason why they do not agree to the requests for additional financial assistance to Ukraine. Similarly, high-ranking officials of the US government have repeatedly stated that Ukraine needs to implement strict anti-corruption policies, although according to them, they see positive steps in this regard in the country. Besides, according to US and European officials, there is no evidence that the aid provided to Ukraine was stolen.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky became the target of disinformation a number of times. Among them was an allegation in November 2023 that he had bought 2 luxury yachts on behalf of Ukrainian businessmen. During the investigation conducted by the international media, it was established that the mentioned yachts are still on sale and they were not purchased by Zelenskyy or any other person. It is most likely this disinformation that became the pretext for the announcement made by Senator Vance about the purchase of yachts.
For more cases of disinformation about the wealth of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials, see “Detector of Myths articles:
- FABRICATED DATA ABOUT THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN UKRAINE IN THE NAME OF FORBES AND THE BBC
- DOES VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY OWN A USD 35 MILLION VILLA IN MIAMI?
About the Source
Georgian-language Facebook user Eduard Jishkariani often publishes anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian content, including disinformation. “Myth Detector” has debunked the false information disseminated by Jishkariani a number of times in the past.
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