Between March 20 and 28, Georgian and Russian-language Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3, 4) circulated a photo claiming to be the cover of a weekly issue of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The image shows a deceased Volodymyr Zelenskyy lying in a coffin with inscriptions in French. However, in versions shared by two accounts, the text was translated into English. According to the alleged cover, the Ukrainian president says from the coffin, “Ukraine is an independent state.” The image also includes a date – March 20, 2025 – as the release date of the magazine issue.
A fake Charlie Hebdo cover is being spread on Facebook. In reality, no such cartoon can be found on the publication’s official website. Moreover, Charlie Hebdo did not release a new issue on March 20.
Charlie Hebdo publishes magazines weekly, mainly on Wednesdays. Notably, in March 2025, the magazine released four issues – March 5, 12, 19, and 26 – with covers that were entirely different from the image circulating on Facebook. Consequently, the alleged issue date is also falsified, as the satirical magazine did not publish any issue on March 20. The photo circulated on Facebook features a serial number of the issue – 1705, which matches the actual issue published on March 26.
The circulated photo was fact-checked by the Italian fact-checking organizations Open and Facta. Their report highlights that this photo fabrication was posted by Russian propagandist journalist Vladimir Solovyov on his Telegram channel on March 22. It is noteworthy that after this, the fake cover photo, translated into Italian from Solovyov’s post, was actively shared by Italian-speaking users on social media.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine and started a full-scale war on February 24, 2022, the forging of magazine covers to discredit Ukraine or its leaders has become an active part of Russian disinformation campaigns. Myths Detector has identified many similar cases, among which several Charlie Hebdo covers appear.
- Fabricated Covers of “Charlie Hebdo” about Ukraine
- How does Kremlin Propaganda Fabricate the Covers of Western Outlets to Discredit Ukraine?
- Another Fabricated Caricature of Zelenskyy in the Name of Charlie Hebdo
- The Cover of Charlie Hebdo, where Zelenskyy Steals Christmas, is Fabricated
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
