Debunking Russian fakes. No, Zelenskyy “pressuring” new Pope wasn’t on Titanic’s cover

Pro-Russian actors often use fake covers for foreign media to discredit Ukraine for domestic and foreign audiences. May was full of fake covers dedicated to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (1, 2). This is a debunking of one of them — a fake cover for the German magazine Titanic. 

What happened? 

On May 14, pro-Russian Telegram channels that systematically publishes Russian propaganda, in particular Bear (“Медведь,” archive) and “Salo Yronili” (archive), spread the post with what seemed to be a May cover for the satirical magazine Titanic. 

On the supposed cover, Volodymyr Zelenskyy “presses” at the new Pope during phone conversation, and the Pope holds the cross in his hand saying “Dios Mio” (“My God” — ed.).

“A cover for a Titanic magazine: “New Pope — old blackmailers.” They’re fully drowning Zelenskyy,” the “Bear” channel authors say. 

Analysis

The image added to the post spread by pro-Russian channels says that it’s a May 2025 issue of the magazine — in the upper right corner, it says, “Internet-Aufgabe.” 

Titanic is a German monthly magazine of political satire. On their website, one could find the covers for previous issues for 2025, in the Archive section. We’ve looked through them and found there’s no issue with a cover depicting the Pope and Zelenskyy. 

The original cover of the issue doesn’t have a sign “Internet-Aufgabe.”  Instead, the original has a number of the issue in the format of: Nr. 1. As such, the magazine’s May issue has a Nr. 5 number. 

On the cover of the actual May issue of Titanic, there’s a top of the head of Germany’s chancellor with the headline “Haarinsel im Bodensee aufgetaucht.” Authors satirize that Friedrich Merz became chancellor of Germany on the second attempt, which happened for the first time in the country’s history. 

So, the cover of the satirical magazine Titanic, on which the Ukrainian president aggressively talks to the new Pope, is another fake of Russian propaganda that discredits both Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s relationship with the Vatican. 

Conclusion: Fake

Author: Ilona Zholondiievska