How a false claim that Leonardo DiCaprio donated $10 million to Ukraine went viral

• Actor Leonardo DiCaprio did not donate $10 million to Ukraine because his grandmother was born there.
• The claim appeared to originate on a Polish website before it was picked up by international news outlets.

Multiple news outlets this week, including Entertainment Tonight, The Independent, and The Sydney Morning all reported that Leonardo DiCaprio donated $10 Million in aid for Ukraine to the International Visegrad Fund. No such donation ever took place.

Despite DiCaprio's donation being widely reported and shared on social media, the International Visegrad Fund said that it had no record of any donation from the actor.

"We are not aware, neither do we have any information about Leonardo DiCaprio donating USD 10 million/£7.6 million to Ukraine. International Visegrad Fund has not announced this information," Lucia Becová, a spokesperson for the organization, told Insider.

Shortly after Insider contacted DiCaprio's representatives for comment on Wednesday afternoon, People reported the actor had indeed donated to a number of charitable causes involving Ukraine.

A source close to DiCaprio told Insider the actor made several donations to humanitarian organizations linked to Ukraine, including donations to CARE, the IRC, UNHCR, and Save the Children. The $10 million figure is not accurate, the source said.

It wasn't clear when DiCaprio made the donations, and the source did not specify how much DiCaprio had donated.

Many of the news outlets that reported the donation cited the same single source, a news website called Polish News which itself linked out to an article from the Polish broadcaster TVN24.

The Independent, for example, on Wednesday published an article that claimed DiCaprio donated £7.6 million — over $10 million USD — in aid for Ukraine to the Visegrad Fund, claiming the 47-year-old actor did so because he had a "personal connection" to the country because his grandmother was from there.

The source close to the actor said DiCaprio had no familial ties to Ukraine.

The Visegrad Fund, according to its website, is "an international donor organization" established by Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia "to promote regional cooperation in the Visegrad region," which includes those four nations.

On its official Facebook page, a post from the organization on Tuesday appeared to refute the claim.

"Nowadays, fake news are present in any form and shape," the post said. "For example, some media outlets informed today that the International Visegrad Fund announced a USD 10 million donation from a famous American actor to help Ukraine. Please, be aware of your sources, follow credible journalists and media, and do not spread fake news."

Despite the limited evidence, several outlets, including the Washington Examiner, Entertainment Tonight mentioned the supposed donation. The reports from US outlets came after the claim was repeated Tuesday in several international news websites, including India Times, GSA News, and MARCA.

The claim also spread on social media. A tweet from Occupy Democrats that referenced the inaccurate donation figure, for example, was shared more than 11,000 times.

Following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, misinformation related to the conflict has spread across the internet.