Kremlin media outlets, Telegram channels, and bots on the social network X are actively spreading a fake cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. It features a caricature of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, who recently visited Ukraine. The caption on the illustration reads: “The tomb raider has arrived to see the looter of the European treasury”. The fake was debunked by fact-checkers at Ukrinform.

However, this is a fake. No such cover can be found on Charlie Hebdo’s official website or on the magazine’s social media accounts, where new issues are normally announced.

The forgery lists the date as November 13 and issue No. 1741, but the magazine did not publish an issue on that day. The two most recent issues were released on November 5 and November 12 under issue numbers 1737 and 1738. The covers of those editions featured completely different cartoons unrelated to Ukraine.

Russian propagandists regularly fabricate covers of popular foreign satirical magazines. Among their “creations” are fakes allegedly from Germany’s Titanic, Newsweek, France’s L'Hémicycle and Charlie Hebdo, as well as other outlets.

The purpose of this fake is to smear the Ukrainian president in the eyes of Western audiences and to divert attention from the humanitarian aim of the actress’s visit. Angelina Jolie came to draw global attention to the atrocities committed by Russian forces in Kherson and Mykolaiv, where drones are being used to hunt civilians.