After the NATO summit held in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on July 11-12, cover images of several famous publications with the image of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were distributed on social media.
Since July 12, 2023, Georgian- (1,2) and Russian-language (1,2,3,4) Facebook accounts have been publishing a cover photo of the German publication Handelsblatt, on which we can see how Zelenskyy is trying to reach a blue door with a NATO flag attached to his head. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is depicted in the background of Zelenskyy, and next to him, we see the German phrase: “Eine endlose Geschichte. Es ist Zeit, unsere Einstellungen über die geistigen Fähigkeiten des Präsidenten der Ukraine zu überdenken.” (A never-ending story. It’s time to reconsider our attitude towards the mental abilities of the President of Ukraine).
On July 14, 2023, Davit Kartvelishvili, a member of the “People’s Power” movement, distributed several caricatures depicting Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to the attached Russian-language inscription, the mentioned caricatures appeared in the Western press after the Vilnius summit. On one of the caricatures, we see part of the name of the Turkish-language humorous magazine LeMan. It depicts the President of Ukraine tied to a pole and standing on the remains of burning military equipment.
The disseminated covers of LeMan and Handelsblatt are fabricated. Similar caricatures cannot be found on the official websites and social networks of the publications. The publications themselves confirm that the mentioned covers are fake.
The alleged cover of Handelsblatt indicates the date 14/15/16 July 2023 and the issue number of 134. No such cover can be found on the magazine’s official website. Satya Nadella, the executive chairman and CEO of “Microsoft,” is depicted on the cover of the 134th issue of Handelsblatt.
The German fact-checking organization Correctiv has also fact-checked the disseminated caricature. A representative of Handelsblatt confirmed to the organization that such a cover is not found among any authentic issues of the publication.
On July 13, a statement appeared on the publication’s Twitter page that a number of fake Handelsblatt covers have been circulated recently, and the real covers can be viewed on the publication’s website.
This is not the first case when a fabricated cover of a German publication with anti-Ukrainian content has been disseminated on Facebook. In June 2023, “Myth Detector” fact-checked an illustration about the ongoing counteroffensive in Ukraine. See more below:
As for the cover of the Turkish publication LeMan, Davit Kartvelishvili attached the following ironic description to the post: “No to Russian caricatures!!! Not to the slaves of Russia!!!;” However, in the comments of the post, he confirms that the illustrations belong to the Western press.
The screenshot is taken from a Russian-language Telegram channel called „Павел Онищенко.“ In the original Telegram message, we can see the cover in its entirety, spread under the name of LeMan.
The disseminated cover is also fabriucated. The issue number is 1633, and the date is July 12, however, the cover of the issue published on this date has a completely different design:
The illustration with Zelenskyy’s image cannot be found in the previous editions of the publication either. It should be noted that LeMan itself denied the information and shared a tweet from the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation on his Twitter page, where it is explained that the cover is fake.
Fabricating the covers of well-known publications has been used frequently to promote Kremlin narratives since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, “Myth Detector” has verified a number of fabricated covers. For more details, see the articles below:
- Fabricated Caricature about Armed Forces of Ukraine Disseminated in the Name of Courrier International
- Fabricated Cover of the Spanish Satirical Magazine EL JUEVES
- Fabricated Covers Disseminated in the Name of Polish and German Outlets
- How does Kremlin Propaganda Fabricate the Covers of Western Outlets to Discredit Ukraine?
About the Sources:
Some of the Facebook accounts that have been disseminating the fabricated covers regularly spread disinformation of anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian content.
The disinformation spread by the Georgian-language user Davit Jebashvili and the Russian-language account Злой Ёжик has been repeatedly debunked by “Myth Detector” in the past (1,2).
The Russian-language account Аркадий Шумский frequently publishes information discrediting Ukraine and the Ukrainian army, as well as Western values, including fake news.
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