Halloween fakes from Russian propaganda: Cover of German magazine Titanic with Zelensky and uniform of military enlistment office employee on OLX

Russian propagandists used holiday theme to mislead Western and Ukrainian audiences

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels began to share the allegedly new cover of the German political satire magazine "Titanic" for October, depicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a caricature style. In the picture, he is holding a pumpkin basket of sweets, "stolen" from children celebrating Halloween. The picture is accompanied by the caption "Ukraine needs more."

This cover is fake as it was not published on the official Titanic website. The real October issue of the magazine was published in late September and looked different.

The cover of the November issue, which was released on the eve of Halloween, features former Liverpool coach and now Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull Jurgen Klopp. The issue is called "He just can't say no! Jurgen Klopp becomes Hezbollah boss."

Pro-war Russian Telegram channels have recently reported that uniforms of employees of military enlistment officers were allegedly on sale in Ukraine, claiming that this is the "scariest" outfit for such a holiday. For proof, the fakers shared a screenshot of an advertisement from the OLX marketplace, which was apparently published by a user nicknamed "Ihor UA."

This is a fake. The user did not post such an ad. Propagandists forged it using a graphic editor. They changed the date and description of the original ad, in which the user was selling an tactical suit for assault operations, but kept the location, price, and nickname of the author.

In general, the author's page mostly sells military equipment and tactical suits. The author does not sell goods related to other topics.

Such fakes aim to discredit the Ukrainian authorities. In the case of the fake cover, the forgery targets Western audiences in order to "consolidate" the Russian narrative that the West is supposedly tired of Ukraine, which needs the help of its partners in times of war. Last year, Russian propagandists also spread a fake cover of the German magazine Titanic, dedicated to the Halloween holiday, with the image of Volodymyr Zelensky.

Using a fake ad on OLX, propagandists are trying to demonize representatives of military enlistment offices in the eyes of Ukrainians.

Russian propaganda earlier faked Charlie Hebdo's cover about the Ukrainian Peace Formula.

Dmytro Badrak