An image shared on Facebook claims to show a Time Magazine cover featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Verdict: False

The image is a digital fabrication. A spokesperson for Time Magazine confirmed the cover is not genuine.

Fact Check:

Russian forces continue to march into the country of Ukraine despite international condemnation and sanctions, according to The New York Times. Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Belarus for peace talks Monday, though no terms were agreed to, the Associated Press reported.

A Facebook image allegedly shows the cover of a new edition of Time Magazine. The purported cover shows a photo of Putin meshed with one of Hitler. The words “The Return of History” and “How Putin Shattered Europe’s Dreams” are featured on the bottom half of the cover. The supposed cover also went viral on Twitter, with one post being retweeted over 1,300 times.

The image is a digital fabrication. It does not appear in the magazine’s online “vault” of covers for the 2022 calendar year. Time Magazine did release a cover about the conflict in Ukraine that uses the words “The Return of History” and “How Putin Shattered Europe’s Dreams,” but the featured image shows an armored vehicle, not the meshed image of Putin and Hitler.

A Time Magazine spokesperson confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact that the image was “not an authentic TIME cover.” (RELATED: Does This Video Show A Russian Fighter Jet Being Shot Down In Ukraine?)

Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact traced the fabricated cover to graphic designer Patrick Mulder, who admitted to creating it. Mulder said in a Feb. 27 tweet it was the “second edition of a rework.”

This is the second edition of a rework I made of this month’s TIME magazine cover. I felt the official choice was somewhat uninspired. Watch the process here: pic.twitter.com/O69drD2bAr

— Patrick Mulder 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@MrPatrickMulder) February 27, 2022

Mulder released a longer statement Feb. 28 explaining that he believed the “official cover by TIME was uninspired and lacked conviction” and that his version of the cover was inspired by perceived similarities between Putin and Hitler.