Claim says Biden, others took millions in kickbacks from Ukraine. That’s Pants on Fire!

A social media post revived a nearly 2-year-old unfounded claim that said multiple U.S. politicians received millions of dollars in kickbacks from aid money they supported for Ukraine.

A Feb. 1 Facebook reel said, “Ukrainian officials have released the kickback numbers they have given to U.S. politicians.” The post showed a list of 18 Democratic and Republican politicians (or “Libidiot commies” and “RINO commies,” referring to “Republicans in name only”) next to a graphic showing the roughly $1 billion combined they supposedly received.

Former President Joe Biden topped the list at $92 million, followed by former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at $89 million. The Facebook reel originated Feb. 1 on TikTok.

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We found multiple recent social media posts from conservative accounts making the same claim and using the same names and dollar figures. A search of key terms from the Facebook reel shows the claim dates to 2023. The posts linked to no credible evidence to support the claim.

(Screenshot from Facebook)

The Dispatch, a fact-checking news site, reported Dec. 21 that the claim first appeared on a Thai-language website in October 2023. That website, a Google translation shows, cited an “unnamed Ukrainian official” as the source for the information. 

Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available nearly $183 billion in aid to Ukraine after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, the Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve, which the U.S. government created in 2014 to coordinate its military aid to Ukraine.

PolitiFact emailed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office for comment, but received no response. We found no evidence that Ukrainian officials have released a list of U.S. politicians who received kickbacks; Searches of the Google and Nexis news databases yielded no credible news stories that said this.

The claim that U.S. politicians received millions of dollars in kickbacks from aid to Ukraine is Pants on Fire!