It turns out that no such covers were printed by it and both the viral images are morphed. They were actually created as artworks by a graphic designer. Reuters did a fact check.
Time magazine never published a cover comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. The image was created by a graphic designer as a sequence of artworks about the invasion of Ukraine https://t.co/1iHVwzfIps
— Reuters Fact Check (@ReutersFacts) February 28, 2022
My TIME artwork has gone viral – so I thought it would be appropriate for me to write a little about it. The image is one out of a sequence of three I created on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. I felt the official cover by TIME was uninspired and lacked conviction. pic.twitter.com/m5P5rorqgt
— Patrick Mulder 🏴 (@MrPatrickMulder) February 28, 2022
I wanted to create something that added to the conversation around the invasion of Ukraine and captured the public mood. It wasn’t originally intended to be a TIME cover. The finished image was so powerful, I felt that it deserved to be framed in an equally powerful way.
— Patrick Mulder 🏴 (@MrPatrickMulder) February 28, 2022