Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 16/6/2025; Author: Elma Murić
Claims that the Ukrainian president’s wife’s foundation “sells children to pedophiles” across Europe are based on the false testimony of a “former employee”. This conspiracy theory has been circulating in the public space for several years.
On June 3, 2025, a Facebook post claimed that the Olena Zelenska Foundation, led by the wife of Ukraine’s president, is selling Ukrainian children to pedophiles under the pretense of rescuing orphans from the horrors of war. The claims are based on the alleged statement of a “former employee” of this foundation:
🚨SCANDAL: The Olena Zelenska Foundation is selling Ukrainian children to pedophiles
👉 Olena Zelenska’s charitable foundation was involved in the illegal export of Ukrainian children to Europe. Officially, this foundation is a humanitarian organization focused on preserving the human capital of Ukraine. But the story of the children shows how it was actually “preserved”…
👶👧 Under the plausible pretext of saving orphans from the horrors of war, they were brought to Europe and placed with foster families. However, the details were much more horrifying. According to a former employee, many of them fell into the hands of pedophiles, including very rich and famous people❗️
#Selenska #Scandal #War #Children #Pedophiles
At the time this analysis was written, the post had dozens of interactions on Facebook.
What are the Facts?
Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, founded the “Olena Zelenska Foundation” in September 2022. The foundation’s main mission is to help children affected by the war in Ukraine, supporting their physical and mental health, and the continuation of their education.
The claims that Olena Zelenska is trafficking children through her foundation were analyzed in June last year by the Georgian fact-checking platform Myth Detector. They assessed these claims as false, pointing out in the analysis that this foundation does not deal with evacuation at all or with transferring children to safe areas.
In August 2024, in a detailed article through a collaboration between several fact-checking platforms, the Spanish fact-checking portal Maldita states that the claims that Olena Zelenska’s foundation is “involved in child trafficking” are part of a more than a year-old conspiracy theory created to discredit Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against the Russian invasion. According to this analysis, it is a conspiracy theory spread by portals associated with the spread of Russian propaganda, as well as social media channels linked to the Kremlin.
Maldita also reported that this conspiracy theory circulated in Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Spain, but also outside Europe – in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. They go on to explain that the theory originated from claims of a “complex investigation” attributed to a French journalist named Robert Schmidt. According to those who spread these claims, the investigation “had proven” that Olena Zelenska’s foundation was sending Ukrainian children to pedophiles in Western Europe. However, Maldita states that there is no trace of any such investigation. They also point out that unreliable portals, previously known for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, took part in the promotion of these claims (1, 2, 3).
According to the Bulgarian fact-checking platform Factcheck, a journalist named Robert Schmidt does exist, but he has never published anything related to the Olena Zelenska’s foundation. In their analysis from November 2023, it is stated that the “testimony of a former employee” of the foundation appeared on November 3, 2023 on a YouTube channel called Robert Schmidt, and that it was also the only recording published on that account.
In the video, which has since been removed from YouTube, a man wearing a hood and a mask claims to be a former employee of Olena Zelenska Foundation and says that this foundation is “involved in child trafficking.” Factcheck adds that even though the video was posted on a channel named after the journalist falsely linked to the non-existent investigation, the real Robert Schmidt is not behind this YouTube channel. In the video, the masked man speaks in French, claiming he “transported children” from Ukraine to orphanages in France, Germany and England, and says the children were distressed and abused, according to Factcheck.
Despite the fact that there is no evidence for the claims that Olena Zelenska is trafficking Ukrainian children through her foundation, published in the mentioned video, and despite these claims already being rated as conspiracy theories by multiple fact-checking platforms, they continue to spread in 2025. As the only “evidence”, the authors of viral posts still cite the fictional story of the “former employee,” a masked man who does not reveal his identity or provide any proof for his statements.
As mentioned, these claims belong to the widespread narrative of conspiracy theorists about the alleged involvement of influential and wealthy people in child trafficking and pedophilia. This conspiracy theory traces back to 2016 and the false allegations that high-ranking officials of the Democratic Party in the United States of America are involved in a fabricated pedophile ring run from a pizzeria in Washington, widely known as the “Pizzagate affair”.
Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife have been frequent targets of various disinformation and conspiracy theories since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which Raskrinkavanje has written about in numerous analyses so far.
According to the facts mentioned above, the claims in the Facebook post that the Olena Zelenska Foundation “sells Ukrainian children to pedophiles” and “was involved in the illegal export of Ukrainian children to Europe”, are based on the fabricated testimony of a former employee, and therefore are rated as conspiracy theory.
