In December 2024, news spread on the RuNet that the son of Dmitry Kuleba allegedly purchased at auction a copy of the props used on the set of the HBO series. We have verified the authenticity of this story.
Reports about the expensive purchase of the son of a former Ukrainian minister began to spread on December 3. For example, Telegram channel "Sheikh Tamir”(119,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) said: “In the USA, a certain Yegor Kuleba - possibly Kuleba’s son - bought himself the famous Iron Throne from the television series “Game of Thrones.” US taxpayers are worried: where did a modest 18-year-old sucker get $1.5 million to buy? Dad probably made money on sapper blades.” Telegram channel «Ukraine.ru"(126,000 views) added that the American TV channel KENS allegedly spoke about the acquisition of this lot at the Heritage Auctions auction. Such publications contain a video with an alleged recording of the broadcast.
According to the TGStat service, at the time of writing this analysis, more than 150 Russian-language channels posted similar posts, which in total received about 630,000 views. Among them "Urgently, now" (46,000 views) and "Zuben_co news» (25,000), as well as Gura Anton (86,000), where the video was published with the words “Maybe it’s stuffed, fake, etc. To be honest, it doesn’t matter.” Similar posts can be found in "VKontakte» and on publication resources Avia.pro And Russia News.
Dmitry Kuleba headed Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine since 2020, but on September 5, 2024 there was sent resign. The politician two children: daughter Lyubov and son Egor. April 9, 2023 Kuleba Sr. congratulated Happy 17th birthday to Egor on Instagram*, that is, by the time the viral video spread, he actually turned 18 years old. At the end of November 2024, in the podcast “Vdoma pogomomo” (“We’ll talk at home”), the former minister (as reported TSN, for the first time in a long time) told about your children.
“A relationship with a son is like a relationship with a military man, and a relationship with a daughter is like a relationship with a princess. Two different models. Especially Egor - he lives completely in the military theme, studies at the university, but undergoes serious military training. He lives in this world: he has his own training camps, his own comrades, some of whom, unfortunately, died. This, of course, greatly influences the type of relationship we build. And Lyuba is also Lyubov, she is tender. Therefore the relationship is appropriate.”
As for the 54-second video being distributed, it actually shows the logo KENS 5 - a television channel based in San Antonio, Texas. The viral fragment of the broadcast talked about the results of the auction, at which memorabilia (costumes, scenery and other props) from the filming of the series “Game of Thrones", which aired on HBO from 2011 to 2019. In particular, the presenters discussed the sale Iron Throne - According to the show's mythology, this is the monarch's chair, forged in the flames of a dragon from the molten swords of defeated enemies. At the same time, at the bottom of the video the inscription is shown: “Where the son of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine got $1.5 million for the Iron Throne,” and at the 13th second there are photographs of Kuleba and his child. In the video itself, neither these names nor Ukraine are mentioned.
News of the auction, organized by Heritage Auctions and HBO, was published on the KENS 5 website back in September 2024. It was clarified that the auction will take place from October 10 to October 12 in Dallas. Soon after their end, American media reported, that more than 900 items went under the hammer, and the proceeds amounted to $21.1 million. The main lot, as expected, was plastic Iron Throne, cast from original props used on filming, with painted metal trim and gemstone embellishments. Bidding for it lasted almost 6 minutes, in the end the throne was sold for $1.49 million. The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
According to website And YouTube channel KENS 5, the results of the auction were broadcast on October 15, and the fragment published by the TV channel was 11 seconds long. longer than the version distributed on RuNet. It turned out that at the very beginning the video was cut off - there was a presenter saidthat the Iron Throne was bought at an auction in Dallas by an unknown Game of Thrones fan. However, in the original there wasn't no signature about Kuleba’s son, no photographs of the minister with him.
On the evening of December 3, a video was distributed commented on Instagram and Kuleba Sr. himself. The former minister called the viral video a fake and even included a visual comparison of the two recordings. “Of course, Yegor didn’t buy anything. He is a student, studying in Kyiv, and I’ll tell you a secret: neither he nor I have even watched “Game of Thrones.” Dear fans of this cult series, I'm sorry. That's how it works. The only question is who ordered it - the Russians or someone from Ukraine? I have a version, but I will tell you about it tomorrow,” Kuleba wrote. December 4 politician stated, that, in his opinion, it was a Russian fake that was specifically planted during his meeting with a group of analysts and former high-ranking officials in the United States.
The earliest post with a fake video that “Verified” was able to find appeared on December 3 at 16:35 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Before everyone else. Well almost. Special operation"(6600 views). This channel has been used many times before distributed fake photographs, videos and covers of satirical magazines, and also repeatedly became their primary source.
Thus, there is no reason to believe that the son of Dmitry Kuleba purchased a replica of the Iron Throne from “Game of Thrones” for $1.5 million. The only evidence of this information is an edited video from a month and a half ago, which first appeared on a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities and symbols are prohibited in Russia.
Cover photo: poster series "Game of Thrones" / HBO / social networks
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