Fact Check: Did the Ukrainian Investigative Bureau had arrested a Ukrainian diplomat for smuggling amid Russia-Ukraine crisis?

Amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, another news is going viral. The news claims that the Ukrainian Investigative Bureau has arrested a Ukrainian diplomat for smuggling. Further, sharing the video, @Patriot73507011 wrote the caption that, “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 jewelry. That $14 billion congress just sent Ukraine is going to end up EXACTLY like this.”

https://twitter.com/Patriot73507011/status/1504301260509437953

Similarly, many other users have shared this post on the handles.

Fact Check

On google reverse image search, we found a report of https://fakty.com.ua/. In the report, it was written that the investigators of the State Bureau of investigation about $1 million worth of gold and foreign currency valuables from one of the employees of the Ukrainian embassy in the EU. Further, it also claims that an embassy official tried to smuggle it across border under the guise of diplomatic mail.  The report mentions that 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, gold jewelry weighing 13.8 kg.

Moreover, we also found a video on YouTube. The caption of the video which can be nearly translated into English, “SBU counterintelligence blocks EU smuggling channel organized by Ukrainian Foreign Ministry officials (video). ” Above all, this is a year old video which was uploaded on March 1, 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uKZFNxj6jQ

Hence, it is an old incident.

Conclusion

Therefore, from our fact check analysis it is clear that the Ukrainian Investigative Bureau had not arrested a Ukrainian diplomat amid the ongoing crisis. But, some users are spreading fake news by sharing old pictures.