On the afternoon of 17 May, Russia's state-owned news agency RIA Novosti spread a fabricated claim that Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies were preparing to arrest first lady Olena Zelenska, which those bodies flatly denied the same evening. Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office say they are conducting no such proceedings. Both tie the claim to a wider Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine.
What Russia claimed
RIA Novosti stated on 17 May 2026, citing unnamed "Russian security structures," that the prosecutors and bureau were preparing to detain the president's wife and deciding which criminal case should come first. The same report claimed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had stepped up his family's security and begun "bargaining" with Western partners, and that his advisers were urging him to divorce his wife as publicly as possible.
The Russian newspaper Izvestia was among the outlets shown amplifying the claim in the screenshots published by the agencies, and ZN wrote that other propaganda resources picked it up.
What the anti-corruption bodies replied
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said it is carrying out none of the procedural actions described in the Russian claims. It called the material part of a systemic disinformation campaign by the aggressor state, aimed at discrediting Ukrainian institutions, undermining trust in anti-corruption bodies and weakening national unity during the full-scale war.
The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) issued a near-identical message the same evening, noting that Russian propaganda has tried before to exploit anti-corruption investigations to destabilize Ukraine from within.
Both urged the public and media to verify information through official sources and not spread the enemy's fakes.
