On November 8, 2024, a Russian-language Facebook account published an image purportedly depicting the cover of the German satirical magazine TITANIC. The cover featured the headline: “ABZUG DER USA AUS DER UKRAINE ERINNERT AN ETWAS,” which translates to “The withdrawal of the USA from Ukraine reminds us of something.”
The image shows an American plane in flight, with individuals desperately clinging to it to avoid falling.
“Hmm… Familiar situation? But this time, they are much more stubborn,” – Germans draw a direct comparison to the infamous American withdrawal from Afghanistan. It references the tragic scenes where thousands of Afghans who had worked with the Americans were left behind, with some desperately clinging to planes as they took off – reads the post.
The cover is also being disseminated across multiple Russian-language Telegram channels (1, 2).
The cover photo attributed to the satirical magazine TITANIC is false. Neither the current nor any previous issues of the magazine feature a cover with such content.
The disseminated cover photo, labeled as the November issue with serial number A4352, is a fabrication. TITANIC magazine, which publishes monthly, released its November edition with a serial number A4352 featuring a different cover – German coach Jürgen Klopp. This authentic cover does not correspond with the circulated fabricated image.
It is important to note that no illustrations with similar content appear in any previous issues of the publication or on its official social media accounts (1, 2, 3).
Fabricated cover photos of this nature are a tactic in Russia’s information warfare, designed to undermine the United States by falsely associating such narratives with Western outlets like TITANIC magazine and other publications that have been misused in the past.
Disinformation of this nature has intensified since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war. “Myth Detector” has exposed numerous fake covers of Western publications, including TITANIC and Charlie Hebdo. For more information, read more:
- A Fabricated Cover Circulating Under the Name of TITANIC Magazine
- A Fabricated Cover of Charlie Hebdo Related to Ukraine’s Peace Formula
- Fabricated Cover of German Handelsblatt featuring Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Nini Bluishvili
Myth Detector Lab
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