Fact check: False claim about Ukraine, Clinton Foundation resurfaces amid Russian invasion

McKenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: Ukraine was the largest donor to the Clinton Foundation for 15 years

While unrelated footage purporting to show the Russian invasion of Ukraine runs rampant online, some social media users have resurfaced an old narrative about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.

“Ukraine largest donor to the Clinton Foundation 1999-2014,” reads text in a Feb. 26 meme on Facebook.

Similar rumors about Ukrainian financial donations to the Clinton Foundation have gained traction on Twitter. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., promoted an iteration of the claim during a Feb. 19 rally in Texas, according to PolitiFact.

“Fact: Ukraine was the single largest donor to the Clinton Foundation,” reads a Feb. 24 tweet that generated more than 100 likes. As evidence, some users cited a graph purportedly showing the foundation's top foreign donors.

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But the posts misrepresent a chart from 2015, which ranks individual contributions to the foundation based on nationality. As FactCheck.org reported in 2019, the Clinton Foundation hasn't received donations from the Ukrainian government.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment.

Posts misuse report on individual donations

The Wall Street Journal published a report in 2015 on individual donations over $50,000 made to the Clinton Foundation between 1999 and 2014. The article included a chart listing the top foreign donors.

Ukraine tops the list, but the graph doesn't support the claim in the social media posts.

Then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and her husband former President Bill Clinton, greet supporters after voting in Chappaqua, N.Y. on Nov. 8, 2016.
Then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and her husband former President Bill Clinton, greet supporters after voting in Chappaqua, N.Y. on Nov. 8, 2016.

That's because the graph doesn't reflect donations from governments, as the posts assert. The Journal's analysis looked at individual contributions and ranked them “by nationality of donor.”

Ukrainians contributed $10 million to the Clinton Foundation – more than any other nationality, according to the report. Most of that money came from Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk.

Pinchuk’s foundation, based in Kyiv, donated $8.6 million to the foundation between 2009 and 2013, the Journal reported. He and his wife started contributing to Clinton charities in 2006.

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The article notes that Pinchuk has close government ties, as he served as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from 1998-2006 and is the son-in-law of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Pinchuk's contributions – both to the Clinton Foundation and the Trump Foundation – have come under scrutiny and faced criticism, but they didn't stem from the Ukrainian government.

Pinchuk also wasn’t the largest donor to the Clintons' charity between 1999-2014.

A 2015 analysis from The Washington Post found several donors had given more than $25 million to the Clinton Foundation since its creation. Among them: Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra’s foundation, Democratic supporter Fred Eychaner and a major lottery based in the Netherlands.

The Clinton Foundation reports all contributors on its site. The Ukrainian government is not listed as a donor.

Other governments are, though. Australia, Saudi Arabia and Norway have all donated between $10 million and $25 million through grants, memberships, sponsorships and conference fees.

USA TODAY reached out to the Clinton Foundation for comment.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Ukraine was the largest donor to the Clinton Foundation for 15 years. While some foreign governments have contributed to the Clinton Foundation, Ukraine has not.

The claim misrepresents a 2015 report on individual donations made between 1999 and 2014. According to the report, which lists the Clinton Foundation's top donors by nationality, Ukrainians contributed $10 million during that time period. Most of the money came from Pinchuk's foundation.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Clinton Foundation donors don't include Ukraine government