DISINFO: Charlie Hebdo publishes caricature of Zelensky and Pope Francis
SUMMARY
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicted Zelensky with the Pope's body in the Vatican bank. The satirical drawing is accompanied by the caption: "It's me, Pope Francis, please transfer all my money to Ukraine."
RESPONSE
There is no such such a cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine. The supposed issue is dated April 23 and marked with serial number 1710.
There is no such cover featuring the Pope and Zelenskyy on Charlie Hebdo’s official website or social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook, X). The most recent issue was published on April 23 2025 with serial number 1709 and addresses the death of the Pope, but Zelenskyy is not depicted.
Fabricated covers of Charlie Hebdo aiming to denigrate Zelensky are a recurrent method used by pro-Kremlin and Kremlin-controlled outlets. See another fabricated cover from 2022 debunked by Reuters Fact Check. Charlie Hebdo also didn't publish an issue with Zelenskyy as a caricature of Quasimodo from Notre-Dame in January 2025, as Euronews found out. Finally, there was no Charlie Hebdo cover depicting Zelensky in a coffin, as disinformation media claimed in early April 2025, as Mythdetector reported.
See also our article A hopeless mix of misleading narratives and plain old fakes and the EEAS's first report on foreign information manipulation and interference threats which both cover how Russian information manipulation actors promote fake magazine covers to undermine Ukraine. See also Why is the Kremlin so hung up on smearing Zelenskyy?