Zelensky’s visit to Dnipro, 11 April 2025

This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project.

Ukraine is an independent, democratic state with its own territorial integrity and sovereignty that was attacked by Russia with an unprovoked military invasion which led to enormous human casualties, material damage, and population displacement, all in order to defend the homeland of Ukraine. Zelensky does not aim to sell Ukraine, nor to form some kind of Khazarian Jewish state. It is obvious that the post aims to spread anti-Semitism through well-known conspiracy theories

We analyze a Facebook post that says:

The br**e* Zelensky destroyed Ukraine, Jewish freak. It seems that the creation of a Khazarian Jewish state is not a conspiracy theory..47% of the territory is owned by BlackRock and Vanguard. The bosses are Rothschild, Rockefeller..A pity for the Ukrainian people.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, was born on January 25, 1978, into a Ukrainian Jewish family. He is a Ukrainian politician and former actor, and has been the President of Ukraine since 2019.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue has reported that conspiracy theories about the Khazars–a semi-nomadic Turkic people who founded a large empire known as Khazaria, located between Eastern Europe and Western Asia during the Middle Ages–have been spreading across conspiratorial, right-wing extremist communities online ahead of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

As Khazaria encompassed parts of modern-day southeastern Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, and Kazakhstan, it gained particular geographical importance in the midst of the war in Ukraine. The Khazars have become a popular talking point among conspiracy theorists due to the claim that the Khazar people, or at least their elites, converted en masse to Judaism during the 8th century. The lack of reliable, contemporary research sources on the Khazars makes it difficult to determine how accurate this claim is. Khazaria was forgotten for centuries until rediscovered among early Zionists in the 19th century, who were interested in what they saw as a potential historical Jewish state. While there appears to have been conversion to Judaism among the Khazars, the extent of conversion to Judaism among the wider population remains unclear.

Much of the contemporary interest in the Khazars by conspiracy theorists can be linked to “The Thirteenth Tribe,” a book written by Hungarian-British author Arthur Koestler in which he presents the highly contested thesis that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of converted Khazars rather than of ancient Israelites. Koestler was aware that his theory could be exploited to delegitimize the State of Israel, according to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Koestler’s theory has been instrumentalized to promote anti-Semitism. The terms Khazars and Khazarian mafia are used to describe the Jewish people, much like Rothschild and Zionist, to soften clear anti-Semitic statements through such epithets. The claim that Ashkenazim are not descendants of the Israelites, but Khazars, very insidiously allows anti-Semites to pretend that they are only opposed to “fake Jews.” Such a narrative is also promoted in the post we are reviewing in the section where it is said that Zelensky is a “Jewish freak” and that the creation of a Khazarian Jewish state is not a conspiracy theory.

The conspiracy theories about alleged Khazarian control of Ukraine are varied and often contradictory. Ultimately, however, they all seek to legitimize the Russian invasion through dehumanizing Ukrainians and presenting war crimes committed by Russian forces as acceptable means to destroy the descendants of a “wicked” race, the analysis states.

Furthermore, the claim in the post that Ukraine was sold to Blackrock and that it is owned by Rothschild, Rockefeller, etc. is a Russian propaganda narrative shared by senior Russian officials.

It is not true that foreign companies have purchased territory in Ukraine, because according to Ukrainian laws, foreigners, stateless persons, and companies are not allowed to buy shares in companies that own agricultural land, writes Myth Detector.

Since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the US government has allocated aid packages to the country, but most of them are direct aid and none of the documents contain a clause requiring Ukraine to transfer state property or assets or land to corporations in exchange for the aid. Ukraine has no debt to BlackRock. Specifically, BlackRock, together with 4 other companies, holds 20 percent of the Ukrainian securities for which Ukraine is obliged to pay annual interest on the debt. But the pressure on Ukraine was reduced and more favorable terms were established, which resulted in a 75 percent reduction in the amount that Ukraine has to pay by 2023, according to Myth Detector.

Ukraine is an independent, democratic state with its own territorial integrity and sovereignty that was attacked by Russia with an unprovoked military invasion that led to enormous human casualties, material damage, and  population displacement—all this to defend the homeland Ukraine. Zelensky does not aim to sell Ukraine, nor to form some kind of Khazarian Jewish state. It is obvious that the post aims to spread anti-Semitism through well-known conspiracy theories.

Due to all of the above, we asses the post as untrue.