Caricatures featuring the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, are disseminated in social networks. The Facebook users seek to create the impression that Ukraine is being mocked in the West and this attitude is manifested by printing caricatures that make fun of Mr Zelensky in various magazines.
Disinformation 1: Zelensky’s caricature was printed on the cover of the German Handelsblatt newspaper.
Both Russian and Georgian accounts in social networks have shared a photograph from the cover of the German newspaper Handelsblatt showing Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Mr Zelensky seems to be trying to get through the door with the NATO symbol on it while Stoltenberg, standing in the distance, is making fun of him.
According to the information on the cover created by the propagandists, the date of the aforementioned issue of the newspaper is July 14/15/16 and the issue number is 134. The official website of the newspaper has archived all of the covers but there is no issue with the aforementioned image. In fact, issue 134 dated July 14/15/16 has a completely different cover.
In addition, the German newspaper Handelsblatt made a statement on its official Twitter page where it addressed the circulation of this item of disinformation.
Disinformation 2: Zelensky’s caricature was printed on the cover of a Turkish satirical magazine.
As for the disinformation disseminated about the Turkish magazine LeMan, of note is that the photographs of the magazine's fake cover were initially disseminated by Russian-language accounts.
According to the information indicated on the fake cover of the magazine, the 1,633rd issue was published on 13 July 13; however, as a result of verifying the information, it turned out that the issue of the same week was actually published on 12 July (the magazine is published once a week) and it was the one with the number 1633.
Similar to Handelsblatt, the Turkish publication LeMan also responded to the circulation of this item of disinformation and shared a tweet from Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation on its official Twitter page saying that the cover was fake.
Of note is that it is not a novelty for Russian propagandists to fabricate front pages of various Western media outlets in order to discredit Ukraine. Prior to that, covers of the French Charlie Hebdo, the German Titanic, the Polish Polityka, the British DAILY EXPRESS, the American Humor Times and the Spanish El Jueves and others were also fabricated.
Therefore, both aforementioned caricatures are fake.
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