Is the Time cover about Vladimir Zelensky refusing to use the letters V and Z real?

In April 2022, Internet users began to share the cover of a popular magazine, on which the President of Ukraine is presented as Ladimir Yelensky. We have verified the authenticity of this image.

The now viral image is said to be the cover of a recent issue of the popular American magazine Time. It contains a photograph of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky with a caption that can be translated as follows: “Ladimir Yelensky refused to use the letters V and Z in his first and last name. As a sign of support, our editors are publishing this issue without the letters Z and V.” The image was actively shared on VKontakte, and this was done as regular users, and a number of fairly large publics, including "Patriots of Russia. Russia. Donbass, LPR, DPR. Army" (134,000 subscribers at the time of writing this analysis), “The USA is the sponsor of world terror” (263,000 subscribers) and “★SergeyGrom | GroupHonor☆Special Forces ☆Intelligence☆" (107,000 subscribers). The photo was also posted by users of other social networks, in particular Twitter And Telegram.

Time is one of the largest American print publications, it exists since 1923. All magazine covers posted in the public domain - Zelensky was not depicted on any of them in 2022. In March, the publication actually dedicated its cover to events in Ukraine (and as in American, and in international versions of the magazine), but did not use a portrait of the head of state in the design. Photo of the Ukrainian President decorated international issue of Time at the end of 2019.

There are two alarming details in the picture, which is popular among Internet users. Firstly, in its upper right corner the dates “April 25 / May 2, 2022” are indicated: on the cover of this issue (Time is published once every two weeks) in reality posted portrait of Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani. The number of the international version of the journal, in turn, dedicated doing business in a changing climate. Secondly, in the picture the Ukrainian president is named Ladimir Elensky, that is, the letters V and Z have been removed from his first and last name in the transliteration 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 like Olodymyr without the letter V.

The image with the supposed cover of Time magazine became popular far beyond the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. The viral image attracted the attention of fact checkers from Reuters. They contacted for comment from a magazine spokesperson who said the viral image was "not a real Time cover." Our colleagues also could not find her on the publication’s social networks.

The earliest publication we have found that uses a mounted Time magazine cover is fast in the Telegram channel “Signal” (585,000 subscribers), posted late in the evening of April 14, 2022. Previously "Verified" sorted it out messages from this anonymous channel about events around the maternity hospital in Mariupol. The "Signal" channel marking can be seen in the lower right corner of images that later appeared in other sources. The publication in Signal was posted a few hours after news that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine banned the use of the symbols V and Z as “propaganda of the Russian regime.” Judging by the caption to the post, the Time cover is a joke, but it was circulated on social networks without appropriate explanation, which misled 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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky no longer uses ‘z’ and ‘v’ letters is digitally altered
2. Snopes. Ladimir Elensky? Fake Time Magazine Cover Omits 'Z' and 'V'
3. Is the video true in which Vladimir Zelensky pretends to play the Ukrainian anthem on the piano with his penis?
4. Is it true that the White House gift shop sells coins dedicated to Vladimir Zelensky?
5. Fake news about what is happening in Ukraine. Part 2