Is Time’s cover that Vladimir Zelensky refused to use the letters V and Z real?

In April 2022, Internet users began to share the cover of a popular magazine, at which the President of Ukraine was represented as Ladimir Elensky. We checked the authenticity of this image.

The viral picture, which states, depicts the cover of the recent issue of the popular American magazine Time. It placed a photograph of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky with a signature, which can be translated as follows: “Ladimir Elensky refused to use the letters V and Z in his name and surname. As a sign of support, our editors publish this issue without letters Z and V ”. The image was actively shared on VKontakte, and this was done as Ordinary users, and a number of rather large publics, including “Patriots of Russia. Russia. Donbass, LPR, DPR. Army" (134,000 subscribers at the time of writing this analysis), "The USA is a sponsor of world terror" (263,000 subscribers) and "★ Sergeygrom | Group of Personal ☆ Special Forces ☆ Intelligence ☆ " (107,000 subscribers). The photo was posted by users of other social networks, in particular Twitter And Telegram.

Time is one of the largest American print media, it exists Since 1923. All the cover of the magazine Layd In the public domain - None of them in 2022 was depicted Zelensky. In March, the publication really devoted the cover of the events in Ukraine (and as in American, and in international versions of the magazine), but did not use the portrait of the head of state in the design. Photo of the Ukrainian president Decorated International Time number at the end of 2019.

There are two alarming details among Internet users popular among Internet users. Firstly, the dates “April 25 /2, 2022” are indicated in its upper right corner: on the cover of this number (Time is released once every two weeks) Placed Portrait of the Japanese baseball player Shechey Otani. The number of the international version of the magazine, in turn, Dedicated doing business in the context of changing climate. Secondly, in the picture the Ukrainian president was called Ladimir Elensky, that is, the letters V and Z were removed from his name and surname in broadcast from Russian to English. At the same time, Time regularly Uses Transliteration from Ukrainian (Volodymyr Zelensky). In this case, the name of the President of Ukraine would look without the letter V as OlodyMyr.

The image with the supposedly cover of Time magazine has become popular far beyond the Russian -language segment of the Internet. The viral picture attracted the attention of factor from the Reuters agency. They Turned For a commentary on the representative of the magazine, who stated that the viral image is “not a real Time cover”. Our colleagues also could not find her in the social networks of the publication.

The earliest of the publications we discovered, which uses the mounted cover of Time magazine, - fast In the Telegram channel "Signal" (585,000 subscribers), posted late in the evening of April 14, 2022. Previously "verified" Disassembled Messages of this anonymous channel about the events around the maternity hospital in Mariupol. The marking of the “Signal” channel can be seen in the lower right corner of the images that later appeared in other sources. The publication in the "Signal" was posted a few hours after news The fact that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has banned the use of symbols V and Z as "promoting the Russian regime." Judging by the signature to the post, the Time cover is comic, but it diverged through social networks without appropriate explanations, which has misleads many users.

Satirical news

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Reuters. Fact Check-Image Purporting to Show Time Magazine Cover Claiming that Ukraine President VolodyMyr zelensky no Longer Uses ‘V’ Letters IS Digitally Altern
2. Snopes. Ladimir Elensky? Fake Time Magazine Cover Omits ‘Z’ and ‘V’
3. Is the video true, in which Vladimir Zelensky portrays how the anthem of Ukraine plays on the piano with a penis?
4. Is it true that the White House souvenir store sells coins dedicated to Vladimir Zelensky?
5. Fakes about what is happening in Ukraine. Part 2