Propaganda Telegram channels are actively spreading a fake cover allegedly belonging to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and supposedly dedicated to French President Emmanuel Macron. It depicts Macron holding a glass of champagne on a battlefield among the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk, where he is allegedly “enjoying” the events. The text on the fake cover claims: “Why does Macron continue to help Ukraine? The smell of Ukrainian corpses reminds him of the aroma of the finest French cheese dairies”. However, as fact-checkers from StopFake have shown, this is a forgery.

Charlie Hebdo has never published such material. All recent issues are available on the magazine’s official website, and none of them feature a cover with Macron. The actual issue was released not on November 6 but on November 5, and it focused on a completely different topic – an investigation into a scandal involving the online retailer Shein and child-like sex dolls.

Moreover, comparing the fake cover with genuine ones easily reveals design discrepancies: Charlie Hebdo always places the issue number and publication date on the left, whereas on the fake they appear on the right.

According to the Osavul service, this forgery first appeared on November 6 in the propaganda Telegram channel “Republic of Odesa”. The purpose of such a publication is to promote a classic Kremlin narrative that Western military and financial support allegedly prolongs the war and prevents it from ending.

Russian propagandists did not stop at a single forgery and created another fake Charlie Hebdo “cover” dedicated to the fighting for Pokrovsk. It depicts the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, portrayed as a chef allegedly showing Volodymyr Zelensky a piece of “Ukrainian barbecue” – the head of a soldier.

However, there is no issue No. 1739 dated November 7, 2025, on the magazine’s official website – the issue under which this fake is being circulated. The image was most likely created using photo-editing software.

Russian propaganda regularly falsifies covers of well-known publications such as Charlie Hebdo, The Economist, Time, and others in order to make its messages appear more credible and to provoke an emotional response from the audience. Using a recognizable brand creates the illusion that Western media share anti-Ukrainian views, thereby reinforcing trust in false narratives about the “futility of supporting Ukraine” and the alleged “cynicism of the West”.

Russian Telegram channels are actively spreading fabricated information about alleged sexual violence committed by servicemen of the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade in Sumy Oblast, presenting a forged screenshot from a Ukrainian media outlet as “evidence”. The fake was exposed by experts from VoxCheck.

By comparing sources and searching by keywords, it was established that the headline of the original article published by The Sumy Post on November 5, 2025, was altered by propagandists.

The real content:

The genuine article does not describe cases of rape or investigations. Instead, it reports on a law that came into force on June 18, 2025, which establishes a mechanism for registering victims and providing compensation to those who suffered sexual violence as a result of Russia’s armed aggression. The text does not mention Ukrainian servicemen in any way.

Russian propaganda exploited news about the identification of victims of Russia’s war crimes in an attempt to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine by falsifying media content. Forging headlines of Ukrainian media outlets is a separate tactic in which agitprop regularly produces photo fakes.