Is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a British secret service agent? No, that's not true: No reputable media has reported on Zelenskyy's elevation to any position within the MI6. A search for the phrase "Volodymyr Zelensky is an Mi6 agent," using Google News' index of thousands of credible news sites, did not reveal any factual reports that he works for the British intelligence agency.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok published by @karelkajoch on July 20, 2023. The video stated in English:
Coming down to the lowest level, to the head of the intelligence agency, is not a simple admission of guilt. At that time a person becomes an actual professional agent. It is clear. One handler always works with one agent. In the case of Zelenskyy, the head of MI6, Richard Moore, became his direct handler.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 14:25:00 2023 UTC)
This claim has been spread by Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and United Nations weapons inspector turned Russian propagandist. In his YouTube video, now removed for violating YouTube's Terms of Service, he refers to "Agent Zelensky."
The claim made in the TikTok video, which features a segment from the original Ritter video, is based on Zelenskyy's meeting with MI6 director Richard Moore in 2020. While this meeting did occur, the conversation was reported to focus on issues related to disinformation and the protection of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Russian propaganda sources positively represent Ritter. According to Euronews, he has discredited himself in the United States and now wants to be perceived as a source of analysis in Russia as a means to achieve renewed glory. Ritter is a convicted sex offender, having been caught exposing himself to minors online on several occasions. He served a year and a half in prison, after having been found guilty of charges, including unlawful contact with a minor in an online chatroom and then performing a sex act on himself.
He has shared his pro-Russian position regarding the war in Ukraine on the platform previously known as Twitter. A post stating that the Ukrainian National Police committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha, for which Ritter was temporarily suspended from the platform, is an example of this. Evidence shows that it's the Russian troops who are responsible for the massacres in the Ukrainian town of Bucha in March 2022.
