Fact Check: Old incident of diplomat’s arrest in Ukraine for smuggling revived amid ongoing war

India Today's Anti-Fake News War room found that the arrest and seizure by Ukrainian authorities as claimed by the social media post actually took place last year.

A photo of a box full of currency notes has gone viral on social media with the claim that Ukrainian authorities arrested a diplomat who was trying to smuggle money and gold from the country.

Several Twitter users shared the image with captions like: “The Ukrainian Investigative Bureau has arrested a Ukrainian diplomat while he was trying to smuggle $140,000, 68,000 euros, 12 kilograms of gold bars and 13.8 kilograms of gold jewellery.”

The India Today Anti-Fake News War room ( AFWA) found that the claimed arrest and seizure by Ukrainian authorities actually took place in February 2021 near the Ukraine-Poland border.

The viral posts are archived here and here.

With the help of a keywords search, we came across a Ukrainian news report titled, “The DBR will transfer $1 million of the seized funds to the Armed Forces”.

As per the report, the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) had confiscated about $1 million worth of gold and foreign currency, and valuables from a Ukrainian embassy employee in the EU last year.

“At the Yahodyn checkpoint on February 28, 2021, during a search of a diplomatic minibus, DBR investigators found and seized almost 68,000, more than $140,000, more than 12 kg of gold bars, and gold jewellery weighing 13.8 kg,” the report said.