Is it true that the French street artist depicted Zelensky in Paris in the image of a aching child?

At the end of February 2024, social networks reported that the famous author of the street art Blek Le Rat painted the president of Ukraine in the form of a capricious baby who shouts: “Give money!” We checked the reliability of this story.

Xavier Pru, known under the pseudonym Black Le Rat, is a popular French artist who called The father of stencil graffiti. In February 2024 in Runet appeared Numerous publications that in one of the buildings of Paris Pru represented the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky “aching a child in a supermarket”, who, as it were, is lying on the floor, knocking his hands and constantly asks to give him money. “Give me money! Money! Give me! Give me! " - The inscriptions behind the baby Zelensky say. As evidence, a couple of photographs of the picture are given. Some posts specify that street art located Opposite the US Embassy and that this caricature is fast Closed Local publics.

Similar records were placed by Telegram channels "Putin in Telegram"(165,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Scott Ritter in Telegram"(87 000),"Russia 2.0"(52,000),"Uncle Glory in Telegram"(48 000),"Patriot Z"(38 000),"Weight.rf"(32 000),"The sun"(28,000),"Nikita Mikhalkov in Telegram"(25,000),"Analytics of Abzalov"(21,000),"Denacification UA"(19,000) and others, as well as communities in VKontakte (examples here, here, here, here And here) and some news sites.

To begin with, “verified” tried to determine the source of the news about graffiti Black Le Ratu with Zelensky. We were not able to find information about this street art in French communities in social networks, and the earliest publication among those that we tracked were in Russian-language Telegram channels "Tasking News"(3000 views) and"Shkvarka 2.0"(1000). There the posts appeared on February 20, 2024 at 13:24 Moscow time. After an hour and a half, a similar record was published in the channel "V Kremlin's hand z z"(7400 views). In all three publications, it is noted that some anonymous subscribers were sent - this is a popular model of the spread of fakes, which these channels more than once Used.

In all the posts we found, there are one or two images that are not independent photos, but screenshots. So, in the first picture the material is presented on the Radio channel website France Interthat is part of Radio France, and on the second - the story from Instagram* France Inter. On these resources, they allegedly wrote about graffiti with Zelensky and showed it from two angles. It is no longer possible to check the presence of storiz (more than 24 hours have passed, and this publication is not in the album with the highlights), but it can certainly be argued that an article about the caricature on Zelensky from Blek Le Ratu on the Radio website absent. Creation of fake screenshots of the media and Storiz - Another favorite method of fake authors.

We also studied the official website artist and his verified Instagram profile, where there are also no mention of graffiti with Zelensky in the form of a child. Our colleagues from the Italian fact, Open's fact, contacted the Black Le Ra, who denied that he created such a drawing. “This is not me,” he answered in a dry message that does not leave options for interpretation.

In addition, Open journalists Noticedthat the territory around the US Embassy in France, which located In the center of Paris, it is completely different from the area captured in viral photos, that is, graffiti pictures were taken in another place. “Tested”, in turn, remembered that earlier the creators of fake anti-Ukrainian street art (often Zelensky were depicted) repeatedly indicated Incorrect locations to make it difficult to check. So, many pictures of roads and walls, on which the drawings were then imposed in a digital way, were made in the eastern suburbs of Paris. At the same time, in one photo with the baby Zelensky, a sign is noticeable, where you can only disassemble Ar Cocktails. We suggested that the first word is Bar and thus found the desired place. Photos, as expected, were taken not in the center of the French capital, but in the commune of Montreyu east of Paris on address st. Armana Carreva, 55. Moreover, the building, on which the graffiti with Zelensky was supposedly painted in the form of a child, located just a few minutes Walking from six previous places where fake street arts were located.

Having learned the address, we asked the French factor Alex Kapron from the Les Observateurs project France 24 to go to the desired building and check the presence of graffiti. In response, he sent us a photo of the wall taken by his acquaintance on March 5. The picture has neither the drawing itself, nor traces of its deletion.

Thus, it is safe to say that Black Le Rat never painted a caricature of Zelensky opposite the US Embassy in Paris - this drawing was created by unknown in the photo editor, and then imposed on a genuine picture taken in the suburbs of the French capital.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that the founder of “verified” and the journalist France 24 created fake graffiti and covers of satirical magazines?
2. Factory of the continuous cycle: what fakes about Ukraine appeared in 2023