Kremlin-linked media outlets and social media accounts are spreading a new false claim about an alleged luxury purchase by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — this time, a massive ranch in the state of Wyoming. The pro-government Russian online newspaper Vzglyad (lit. “View”) “reported” the story, appealing to the authority of an anonymous Telegram channel:
“A Cyprus-based company linked to Volodymyr Zelensky has purchased a ranch in Wyoming covering 3,700 square kilometers, nearly four times the size of New York City.
The Pathfinder Ranch in Wyoming spans 916,000 acres, or 3,700 square kilometers, reports channel 360 citing the Telegram account ‘Voice of Mordor.’
The publication notes that the land area is four times that of New York. The official website of Swan Land Company lists the buyer as the Cypriot firm Davegra Ltd, associated with Zelensky since 2021. The deal reportedly amounted to $79 million. If confirmed, the purchase would place Zelensky among the top ten largest private landowners in the United States.”
The Cyprus-registered company Davegra Ltd, according to the Pandora Papers, is indeed linked to Zelensky’s associates. Its director and beneficiary is listed as Ivan Bakanov, Zelensky’s former campaign manager, who served as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) until 2022. The company’s documents date back to 2012, when Zelensky was still a comedian and producer, years before entering politics. However, there had been no evidence of any recent activity by the company until claims of this “ranch purchase” appeared online.
The story first surfaced on Oct. 27 in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by a user operating under the pseudonym Johnny Midnight (@Its_The_Dr). The post, since deleted but preserved in online archives, read:
“@ZelenskyyUa’s offshore company Davegra has just purchased Pathfinder ranches for $79M. The ranch is so massive it bumped Zelensky into the Top 10 US landowners.”
The post included a video, still circulating among other social media users, claiming that the ranch is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island and that the deal was finalized on Oct. 24. The video linked to the “official” website of the real estate firm Swan Land Company — but the site was fake. The authentic website’s address is swanlandco.com, while the fake one used in the video is swanlandco.us. The bogus page announcing the sale has since been deleted but remains archived. Its homepage, also removed, appeared to have existed for only one day, as it was indexed on Oct. 28 and displayed a maintenance message with links redirecting users to the real Swan Land Company website. The genuine listing for Pathfinder Ranches still exists, and as of Oct. 30, the property remains for sale for $79.5 million.
Wyoming’s largest newspaper, Cowboy State Daily, investigated the viral claim, publishing a story titled, “No, Zelenskyy Isn’t Buying 916,000-Acre Pathfinder Ranches — But Someone Is.” The paper wrote:
“It is true that Pathfinder Ranches is a massive ranch. It is larger than the state of Rhode Island, and bigger than New York City and Los Angeles combined. It’s also true that a sale is pending. But according to the selling agent Swan Land Co., the buyer is American. Not only that, but the buyer is an American cattle rancher.
‘Swan Land Company, the brokerage who listed Wyoming’s Pathfinder Ranches for sale in August 2025, refutes online claims that Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has purchased the property,’ according to a statement from the company emailed to Cowboy State Daily.
‘The ranch is currently pending sale to a family-owned American ranching company with intentions to continue the cattle ranching legacy that the property is known for.’
Swan Land Company’s statement goes on to say that more information will be released about the sale in the future after the deal has closed. It also advises people to carefully doublecheck domain names to spot fake websites. The latter refers to the fake post’s link to a cloned website that looked very much like the Swan Land Company’s, but the fake site’s URL ended in a ‘.us’ instead of ‘.com.’”
A similar disinformation tactic was used in July 2024, when fake reports claimed that Zelensky had purchased a casino and hotel in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. That hoax also involved a cloned website falsely listing the buyer as a company that was indeed linked to Zelensky before his presidency. Extravagant fake purchases attributed to Zelensky are a recurring theme in Kremlin propaganda. Other fabricated stories have claimed that Ukraine’s ethnically Jewish president bought Hitler’s Alpine residence and parade car, and other fictitious purchases included aTuscan winery once owned by the English musician Sting, a luxury apartment in Dubai, and even a new Bugatti sports car (allegedly for first lady Olena Zelenska). In several cases, the smear campaigns went as far as to create fake websites impersonating foreign media outlets in an effort to lend credibility to the factually baseless claims.