An alleged front cover from the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo is circulating online, mocking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the death of Pope Francis.
In the picture, we can see a caricature of Zelenskyy holding up the body of the late pontiff at the Vatican bank. He’s hiding behind the bishop of Rome and animating his body like a puppet.
“It’s me, Pope Francis. Please transfer all of my money to Ukraine,” the cartoon Zelenskyy says.
The accounts sharing the front cover and commenting on it are critical of Zelenskyy, accusing him of demanding money from world governments and using Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s war as a pretext.
It’s a common accusation that critics of Ukraine try to levy against the Ukrainian president in an effort to weaken support for Kyiv.
But this is all false: firstly, we can easily check whether the picture is authentic by visiting Charlie Hebdo’s website — it’s not anywhere to be found.
It was supposedly published on 23 April 2025, but checking Charlie Hebdo’s list of recent publications shows us that the real 23 April edition looks completely different.
The edition number is also wrong: the real cover shows the number 1709, while the fake one is labelled 1710.
The real edition does deal with the pope’s death, but instead mockingly says his successor will be “truly close to the poor” by depicting him as a rat.
The rat says: “What’s more, I’m reactionary, misogynistic and homophobic.”
Many of the accounts sharing the fake front cover online are pro-Russian, and regular disseminators of Kremlin propaganda that attempt to discredit Ukraine.
Charlie Hebdo itself has previously issued a warning that pro-Russian actors are using its image to produce anti-Ukraine content.
“Russian propagandists are creating fake Charlie Hebdo front pages to make it appear that the newspaper supports Putin,” the magazine said.
“While the process isn’t new — there are plenty of fake Charlie front pages — it’s surprising to see it still working,” it added.
EuroVerify has already debunked other instances of false Charlie Hebdo editions that disparage Zelenskyy. In this one, Zelenskyy was depicted as Quasimodo, a character from Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, again as part of an effort to demean him and wider Ukraine by extension.
ADVERTISEMENTIt’s been widely shown that Russia is attempting to damage support for Ukraine by spreading propaganda that depicts Zelenskyy as a money-grabbing opportunist who’s robbing taxpayers’ funds.
This particular fake Charlie Hebdo front cover is especially striking because it combines two figures who have constantly fallen victim to deepfakes over the past few years: President Zelenskyy and Pope Francis.
The former has become a prime target for misinformation in general ever since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Such false narratives, such as accusing him of prolonging the war and calling his motives for financial assistance into question, are amplified when even high-profile politicians worldwide, such as US President Donald Trump, have labelled him a “dictator”.
ADVERTISEMENTHowever, Western countries are providing legitimate financial and humanitarian support to Kyiv, and surveys consistently show that a strong majority of European citizens back this.
