An impostor site falsely claimed that a search of former defense procurement chief Arsen Zhumadilov uncovered $140 million in cash. The New Voice of Ukraine said it never published the report and reported that Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau, NABU, conducted no such search.
The fake story appeared on Sept. 23, 2026, at nvukraine.com, registered two days earlier and designed to resemble the real outlet’s english.nv.ua address. Lead Stories found no matching reports from credible news outlets and no Zhumadilov references in its search of NABU’s website.
In a Sept. 25 report, The New Voice of Ukraine described the story as an AI-generated fake and said Russians created and spread it to portray Ukraine as corrupt to the West. The outlet said it circulated while Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev was holding talks with a U.S. delegation in New York.
