Fact check: Did Ukraine's US ambassador steal champagne during White House dinner shooting?

Published on 30/04/2026 - 17:53 GMT+2

False rumours person gained traction online alleging that Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna, stole respective bottles of vino aft a gunman opened occurrence and attempted to tempest the yearly White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD).

The allegations targeting Stefanishyna snowballed aft footage shared crossed societal media racked up hundreds of thousands of views, accompanied by dubious claims.

The video successful question shows a pistillate putting aggregate vino bottles nether her arm, successful the aftermath of the attempted shooting astatine the Washington Hilton edifice connected 25 April.

The country appears to beryllium mostly empty, pursuing the cancellation of the dinner, which US President Donald Trump besides attended.

However, the pistillate depicted successful the video is not Olga Stefanishyna.

This tin beryllium verified by comparing the outfit Stefanishyna wore to the lawsuit with the 1 worn by the pistillate captured successful the clip.

The pistillate seen leaving with the bottles was wearing a achromatic slit formal nether a achromatic fur coat, portion Stefanishyna wore a metallic ruffled feather ensemble, which we tin spot successful the earlier and aft photos of the incidental that she shared connected her Facebook account.

Euronews' fact-checking team, The Cube, was not capable to independently verify the individuality of the pistillate featured successful the footage circulating crossed societal media, but we tin corroborate that it is not Olha Stefanishyna.

The meal had hardly begun erstwhile Cole Tomas Allen — who was charged with the attempted assassination of Trump connected Monday — raced past a information barricade adjacent to the ballroom of the Washington Hilton hotel, prompting a gunfire speech with Secret Service agents providing information for the event.

While President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were evacuated from the ballroom on with their interior circle, journalists were forced to fell nether tables arsenic the country was locked down earlier their evacuation.

The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) organises the yearly meal for Washington's property corps. According to their website, the meal is the "main root of revenue" to concern their work, with "tickets sold to quality organisations that person relation members."

Attendees paid for their tickets, with a repast and vino provided. This means that accusing the pistillate who did permission with vino bottles of theft is tenuous.

Some online users besides linked the mendacious claims concerning Stefanishyna to unrelated corruption allegations.

Stefanishyna is connected proceedings implicit allegations that much than 2.5 cardinal Ukrainian hryvnia successful nationalist funds were misappropriated betwixt 2013 and 2014, erstwhile she served arsenic portion caput successful the Ministry of Justice.

The lawsuit is being handled by Ukraine's anti-corruption authorities, including the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), alongside Ukraine's Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO).

Stefanishyna has consistently maintained her innocence and argues that immoderate wrongdoing was a bequest from a erstwhile governmental era.

This was the archetypal clip that Trump attended the WHCA yearly dinner, having not attended during his archetypal term, nor during the archetypal week of his 2nd word successful office.