Image of Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska wearing luxury brands is altered

Image of Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska wearing luxury brands is altered

(Reuters) - Users online are sharing a digitally altered image of Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska wearing clothing and accessories from luxury brands. The original image shows Richard Heart, an entrepreneur and YouTuber who touts a collection of luxury products.

A Facebook user sharing the altered image said, “It warms the heart knowing that billions of our hard-earned tax dollars are going towards good causes this holiday season. Like to Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife Olena, for example, who has been spotted sporting a designer coat from Gucci and a Rolex watch that retails for $21,619.71” (here).

Another example of the claim can be seen (here).

The image appears to show Zelenska on a plane wearing luxury clothing with a designer watch and luggage, with a caption that criticizes the extravagance.

However, a Google search for the image leads to a Twitter user named Richard Heart who shared a nearly identical photo with the comment, “Fly private.” (here)

A zoomed-in version of the altered image of Zelenska and the original photo of Heart can be seen (imgur.com/a/D3lcwot). The sole difference in the photos appears to be Zelenska’s head replacing Heart’s.

Multiple indicators suggest these two are the same image. Heart’s hands appear identical to Zelenska’s, the window is at the same location in both photos, and the bottle on the left side of both images appears to show the same amount of water.

On Heart’s website (richardheart.com/) and YouTube page (here), it says Heart owns “the world’s largest cut diamond,” the “most expensive” Rolex watches ever made, and is the founder of a cryptocurrency investment bank HEX (hex.com/).

VERDICT

Altered. The image of Olena Zelenska was digitally manipulated from a photo of a Twitter user named Richard Heart.