The BBC published no such report. In the original footage of Olena Zelenska’s arrival at the Élysée Palace, she is wearing no pendant whatsoever — the jewelry was added to the image during post-production.
Russian and pro-Russian Telegram channels, along with some social media users, are circulating a video bearing the BBC logo that claims Olena Zelenska appeared in Paris wearing a “Femme-libellule ailes ouvertes” pendant stolen shortly before from the French Lalique museum. Propagandists allege the jewelry was spotted by French photographers, without explaining how it came to be in the possession of Ukraine’s First Lady.
In reality, the video is a fabrication and the pendant was added to an image of Olena Zelenska using graphic editing software. The BBC published no such report on its official website, social media accounts, or YouTube channel. No other credible media outlet has reported that a stolen piece of jewelry was found on Zelenska.
To produce the fake video, its authors used photographs and footage from other sources, including footage of the Ukrainian presidential couple’s visit to Paris on July 13, 2026, when Volodymyr and Olena Zelensky arrived for a dinner at the Élysée Palace following a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing leaders — an event covered by international news agencies. In the original photographs and video of guests arriving at the venue, Olena Zelenska is clearly wearing neither the “Femme-libellule ailes ouvertes” pendant nor any other large necklace. The pendant appears only in the edited image incorporated into the fabricated BBC report.
For context: the Lalique museum was robbed on July 5. In the early morning hours, three individuals broke into the museum in the commune of Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace, smashing six display cases and stealing 27 pieces of jewelry in 11 minutes, with a total estimated value of approximately 4.5 million euros — figures that do not match the propagandists’ own claims of 20 items worth 5 million euros. An investigation into theft carried out by an organized group was assigned to the Strasbourg gendarmerie’s investigative unit, with the participation of the Bas-Rhin departmental gendarmerie and the Central Office for the Fight against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Goods.
Among the stolen works was indeed a pendant by René Lalique, “Femme-libellule ailes ouvertes,” created around 1898–1900 in gold, enamel, and diamonds — one of the centerpiece works of the collection and the first piece acquired by the museum after its opening in 2011. Neither prosecutors, nor the gendarmerie, nor museum management have reported that the pendant has been recovered, let alone that it was found in the possession of Ukraine’s First Lady.
According to the Osavul monitoring system, the fabricated story first surfaced on July 23 on the Telegram channel Golos Mordora, before being picked up by substantially larger Russian propaganda outlets, including GASPARYAN and Ostashko! Vazhnoye.
The fabrication is part of a systematic campaign to discredit Olena Zelenska. Russian propaganda regularly attributes to her the purchase of expensive cars, jewelry, and other luxury goods, seeking to portray Ukraine’s leadership as corrupt and to convince Western audiences that aid to Ukraine is being used for personal enrichment. Similar fabrications have previously claimed that Zelenska spent over one million euros on designer clothing and fled the country with 66 million euros in cash, jewelry, and gold.
