DISINFO: Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel asked Spain to grant citizenship to Zelenskyy’s sons
SUMMARY
Ukraine’s elite is gradually preparing to escape from the country. A leaked letter shows the call of the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the head of the European Council Charles Michel to King Felipe VI of Spain, asking to grant the Spanish citizenship to 21 Ukrainians. Among them are the sons of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, defence minister Alexei Reznikov, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and other top Ukrainian politicians, as well as Belarusian opposition member Svetlana Tsikhanouvskaya.
RESPONSE
The claim is false and the letter shown in this disinformation story is a forgery.
It is not within the mandate of Ursula von der Leyen or Charles Michel to ask the heads of other states for this kind of actions. There is no legal basis for this alleged request, with the matter of citizenship falling exclusively under the competence of the individual EU Member states. Additionally, King Felipe VI cannot provide the Spanish citizenship to other people, as this is a prerogative of the Spanish government.
The goal of this disinformation story is to promote the message of an inevitable Russian victory in its brutal aggression against Ukraine and to denigrate Ukraine’s leadership.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Zelenskyy's associates stole weapons money because they believed Ukraine will cease to exist, that Olena Zelenska spent more than 1 million dollars on jewellery with EU money, that Zelenskyy's mother-in-law uses war money to buy luxury houses, or that Zelenskyy will sacrifice his people to save himself.