Have Ukrainian investigators recovered the jewels stolen from the Louvre museum from the assets of a Ukrainian billionaire who is an associate of President Zelenskyy? No, that's not true: The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which purportedly seized the jewels, has not posted anything about it on social media. The NABU has denied it was true in a statement to a European fact-checking organization. There are no reports about the recovery in French media, which would be expected if the claim were true.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on the @SprinterPress on November 18, 2025. The post included a video making the claim with a caption that read:
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) latest raid turned up Marie-Louise's missing Louvre jewels among the belongings of Ukrainian billionaire Timur Mindich, described as a close associate of Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mindich has reportedly already escaped to Israel. The saga only grows more surreal.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
The transcript of the video reads:
A corruption scandal at the highest levels of Ukraine's government has taken an unexpected turn. Among the assets confiscated from Timur Mindich, investigators have discovered a portion of the jewels stolen from the Louvre in early October.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) carried out a series of searches targeting a number of high-ranking Ukrainian officials, among whom was Timur Mindich, a friend of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Timur Mindich is a well-known Ukrainian businessman and a former co-owner of the company Kvartal 95 Studio, founded by Volodymyr Zelensky. NABU accused the businessman of corrupt activities in the energy sector, as well as of involving former Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in these activities. The Anti-Corruption Bureau stated that over the course of the criminal group's operations, a total of about $100 million passed through the so-called laundry.
During the searches of Mindich's apartment, large sums of cash and various luxury items were confiscated, two of which were later identified as an emerald necklace and earrings from the jewelry set of Marie Louise of Austria, Empress of France and wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Marie Louise's jewelry set, valued at around 15 million euros, was stolen from the Louvre on Oct. 19, 2025, by four criminals who were later detained by French special services. The items discovered during the search of Mindich's residence have been transferred to a specialized department for temporary storage, and investigative authorities have begun verifying their origin.
Timur Mindich managed to leave the territory of Ukraine and travel to Israel before the searches were conducted. No official comments have yet been issued by Ukrainian authorities on the matter.
European fact-checking organizations, including this article (archived here) by Belgium's VRT.be, and a fact check (archived here) by Germany's DW.com, have previously concluded the video was created by an artificial intelligence tool. Both debunk articles noted that the images of the royal jewels shown in the video are not the same as the jewels reported stolen from the Louvre on October 19, 2025. This is a screenshot from the DW.com analysis:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of DW.com)
The VRT and DW fact checks report that NABU has confirmed the claims made in the video are fake. The DW article reads:
The video is fake and a product of either pro-Kremlin propaganda or someone who wants to spread disinformation.
This GIF shows the NABU X account timeline over the previous days. It does not include any announcement about recovering the stolen jewels.
(Image source: Lead Stories screen recording of the NABU X.com timeline)
A Google news search for "Louvre jewels" returned no articles about the jewels being recovered. The results were mostly links to stories about the arrests of suspects in the theft.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google.com)
