Russian state media is falsely claiming a deal has been brokered to turn the area into a ‘toxic waste dump.'
ADVERTISEMENTKyiv is selling off 400 square kilometres of fertile black soil to the family of George Soros, a Hungarian-American billionaire and philanthropist, whose support for progressive causes has made him the subject of many conspiracy theories, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Why? Allegedly, so they can turn the land into a massive dump for hazardous, radioactive waste.
The Russian state agency cites Jules Vincent, said to be a French freelance journalist, as the source of these bombshell allegations.
On his Twitter page, Jules Vincent published an audio recording where he first introduces himself in a non-native French accent claiming he’s been working as a reporter covering the environment for more than five years.
He then gives the floor to an anonymous representative of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine who says these lands will be "given to companies for their gratuitous and indefinite use for the disposal of chemical waste."
The video ends with a call from this freelance journalist to “all those who care about the fate of nature to draw public attention to the harmful consequences" of this deal.
The Cube decided to dig a little deeper by looking into this so-called French journalist. Apart from this Twitter post, we couldn’t find any other original stories he has published in the past five years.
Moreover, his Twitter account remained inactive for a couple of years until the person behind it suddenly started retweeting environmental content as of November this year.
Moreover, in his Twitter bio, he claims to be part of a French association for freelance journalists called Pigiste.
However, the group recently tweeted claiming this journalist has never been part of their association, and asserted that the account is impersonating a reporter.
But this didn’t prevent other pro-Kremlin media from picking up this recording and sharing a screenshot of a decree supposedly signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy which allegedly corroborates the journalist’s findings.
One of the decrees shared was signed on 13 November 2023. So to verify this, The Cube checked the Ukrainian presidency’s website.
There’s only one decree that was signed on that date and it has nothing to do with agricultural land or George Soros.
The decree signed that date was to grant the honorary title of “Hero of Ukraine” to a soldier.
According to Ukrainian law, foreigners and foreign companies are not allowed to acquire agricultural land.
Foreign companies only have the right to buy non-agricultural land for the construction of real estate related to their business activities in Ukraine.