We became aware of this report from the FunFact portal Faktastisch, but they have since removed the post.
USD 10 million donation to Ukraine
Leo DiCaprio is said to have made a gigantic individual donation to support Ukraine to support the country of his grandmother's birth. Let's take a closer look. At the bottom left of the image you can see a shortened Bitly URL that leads to the following Instagram post:
This post appears to confirm the donation by referring to reports in the Polish press that the donation was confirmed by the International Visegrad Fund. The International Visegrad Fund (IVF) is an international donor organization that funds grants and scholarships to promote the development of innovative ideas in Central and Eastern Europe.
Reference is also made to the actor's personal connection to Ukraine, whose grandmother was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and then emigrated to Germany with her family in 1917. DiCaprio was known to be very close with his grandmother, whom he called Oma in German.
This very believable Instagram post was liked over 400,000 times and received almost 1,500 comments. But is the information correct?
International Visegrad Fund did not receive any major donations
A look at the website of the International Visegrad Fund mentioned in the caption does not lead to any results. Such a donation is not mentioned there. This is remarkable because such an amount from an Oscar winner would have been a hit for any PR team trying to drive traffic to their website ( HERE ). The actor himself has not published anything of the sort. Which, sympathetically, is not absolutely necessary. A dead end.
Twitter brings the solution
Next try: Twitter. And the topic is actually already present. The blue tick Twitter account of Dan Evon, a reporter at Snopes.com, quotes the spokesman for the International Visegrad Fund:
A spokeswoman for the International Visegrad Fund told us: "We are not aware of, nor have we had any information on, that Leonardo DiCaprio donated $10m/£7.6m to Ukraine."
This makes it clear that no DiCaprio donation over $10 million has gone to IVF. The spokesman also confirmed that the actor had made some small donations to various humanitarian groups to support the people of Ukraine.
But what exactly happened?
Snopes.com has painstakingly traced the rumor and come up with a theory that sounds somewhat likely and also explains how IVF came into play ( HERE ).
The first report of the rumor can be found on March 5th on a South American site ( HERE ), where there was still talk of unknown sources, which later became the Polish news. It also states that the money went directly to the government, which is very unlikely and cannot be proven. Snope.com was able to prove that President Zelensky did not comment accordingly.
“Sources in Ukraine announced today, May 5, 2022, that Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, famous for his role in the hit film “Titanic,” transferred $10 million to the Ukrainian government during the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage. Presumably the huge donation is intended to support the war effort as well as humanitarian efforts in the country.”
Snopes.com
On March 6th, the Twitter account Visegrad 24 picked up on the rumor and published a tweet citing Polish sources. This tweet can no longer be found and has probably been deleted. Snopes.com has an edited screenshot on its site.
silent post
In any case, this tweet seems to have started the wave that spread the rumor across social networks. And because not every user on the Internet looks very closely and accurately, the Twitter account Visegrad 24, which multiplied the rumor, probably became the alleged donation recipient International Visegrad Fund. This is how Snope.com interprets what happened quite plausibly. The game that corresponds to this process is called “Silent Post”.
A People's Magazine article ( HERE ) states that sources close to the actor confirmed that donations went to CARE, IRC, UNHCR and Save the children, specifically for Ukraine. However, there is no official confirmation from DiCaprio himself. However, DiCaprio is actively working as a peace ambassador for the UNHCR. A corresponding donation would therefore be logical ( HERE ).
Grandma Helene
The question of the birthplace of his grandmother Helene cannot be verified either. A search reveals Russia as his place of birth, DiCaprio describes himself as half-Russian because two of his grandparents are of Russian descent. In 1909 Odessa, now Ukrainian, the supposed birthplace of Grandma Helene, was part of Russia. In any case, she died in 2008 in her long-time home of Oer-Erckenschwick near Recklinghausen. At the blessed age of 99.
Conclusion
Leonardo DiCaprio did not donate $10 million to the International Visegrad Funds for Ukraine aid. However, it seems very likely that he made several smaller donations to relevant charities. However, this has not been officially confirmed.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

