At a glance
- The two videos circulating online of "Cocaine on Zelenskiy's Desk" are not credible. The white powder and Mastercard credit card on the table in the video of Zelenskiy's call with Musk were artificially added by netizens later, and did not exist in the original video released on March 6.
- Another video, which still hangs on Zelenskiy's Instagram page and has not been deleted, is accused of "suspicious" packaging that is highly similar to the phone's charging plug (including the data cable) and the iPhone's Lightning Charge; the "white powder" consists of two parts, presumably the tabletop trim line and the family portrait frame reflection.
Event background
Recently, a saying circulated in major WeChat groups that Zelenskiy "sucked up" during the live broadcast, and attached two videos. In the first 12-second video, Zelenskiy sits in front of a computer monitor and makes a video call with Elon Musk while a "Mastercard" credit card and some suspicious white powder appear on his desk.
The second video is 48 seconds long, and at the top of the video screen there is a column of "instructions" added by netizens: "On April 16, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy uploaded a video of his trance, which was immediately deleted, but it has been downloaded by sharp-eyed netizens and found drugs on the table. Further searches revealed that this statement has also sparked widespread discussion on other social platforms, such as Weibo.
Mingcha
There was white powder on the table when Zelenskiy talked to Musk?
A public search revealed that Zelenskiy's video call with Musk took place on March 6. The original version of the online video can be found on YouTube, Instagram and other platforms. In a clear version of Zelens' official Instagram account uploaded on March 6, the desk settings are largely the same as those of the online video. The only difference is that in the original video, the so-called white powder and MasterCard card do not appear on the back of the phone that was blurred.
Left: Screenshot of the video transmitted online; Right: The original video released on March 6.
As of press time, "Surging Mingcha" has not been able to accurately find the user who tampered with this video footage. However, based on existing clues, the earliest video with white powder on the Internet can be located around April 22.
Russian media Chelindustry.ru reported on April 22 that the headline screenshot reads: "Coca reappears on Zelenskiy's desk and is captured."
According to the BBC, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post and other media reports, in this call, Zelenskiy invited SpaceX CEO Musk to visit Ukraine after the end of the war and thanked Starlink for its contribution to restoring Ukraine's Internet supply. StarLink is a high-speed Internet access service launched by Space Exploration that covers the whole world. As a result of the war, Starlink became the only non-Russian communications system operating in parts of Ukraine.
Screenshot of the BBC report on March 6.
Cocaine packaging on the table when Zelenskiy was live?
After investigation, the video clip described by netizens as "Zelensky's mental trance" has no obvious post-processing or processing. The original video was uploaded to Zelenskiy's personal Instagram on April 17 and has garnered more than 3 million views on the social platform alone. As of press time, the video is not "deleted", as netizens say, and it still exists not only on Instagram, but also on official channels such as Twitter of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Screenshot of Zelenskiy's April 17 video on Instagram.
Screenshot of a April 17 tweet from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
In this 32-second video, Zelenskiy does not appear still in the picture. Holding the camera, he rotated his seat, turned the camera three times to his surroundings, and at the 12th and 15th seconds, he pointed twice at his desk, which featured stacked paper documents on the table and a family portrait placed on his left-hand side. At the 20th second, he shows two crafts placed on his right hand, one in the shape of a rooster. However, from zelenskiy's speech and shooting state, it is difficult to tell whether he is really in a trance and behaves strangely.
So, what exactly is the "suspicious item" on the table that netizens refer to?
Looking closely at the original video zelenskiy uploaded on his Instagram, several much-maligned "packages" appear at the 16th second of the video. Using the local enlargement function of the picture, it was found that the so-called suspicious white item was hexagonal at the bottom and connected by a long line at the end, and its shape was similar to the height of the data cable.
"White Suspicious Item" is partially enlarged.
The black object next to the white item is rectangular, with a bright protruding part in the center, which is composed of two colors: gray below and white above. This color scheme and shape can't help but be reminiscent of the iPhone's Lightening data cable interface.
"Black Suspicious Item" is partially enlarged.
Search for the keyword "iPhone seat charge" on the e-commerce platform to find many products similar to the black items in the picture.
iPhone lightning seat charge, image source Taobao.
Combining the current clues, it can be seen that although the model and number of Zelenskiy's personal and work phones are not clear, the possibility of Zelenskiy using the iPhone cannot be ruled out. For example, in a televised speech released by the Office of the President of Ukraine on March 8, judging by the shape of the camera lens, Zelenskiy's phone model is likely to be the iPhone 12 Pro.
Screenshot of a video of Zelenskiy's speech released by the Office of the President of Ukraine on March 8. Zelenskiy holds a mobile phone in his right hand.
In addition, it is not known whether there is a person responsible for running Zelenskiy's social accounts, but Zelenskiy's tweets show that his tweets are sent from the iPhone client.
Zelenskiy tweeted on April 17 using the iPhone client.
Netizens pointed out that the suspicious "white powder" on the table actually consisted of two parts.
As shown in the figure, the two white parallel lines are actually decorative lines, extending from the center of the desktop to the edge, due to the placement of the family portrait and the shooting angle, the decoration is cut, resulting in the line behind the family portrait is not very clear. However, the same conclusion can be drawn compared to Zelenskiy's previous films with the same set.
In addition, the remaining two white polylines, whether in color lightness, thickness, texture and texture, are significantly different from the above table decoration. If the rays far away from the lens in the video are called a, and the rays close to the lens are called b, the comparison finds that the angle angles formed by a and b are the same, and a and b are parallel to the lines formed by the family portrait frame, which can be speculated that the reflection of the frame reflected on the desktop by light.
In summary, the two videos of "cocaine on Zelenskiy's desk" circulated on the Internet are not credible. The white powder and Mastercard credit card on the table in the video of Zelenskiy's call with Musk were artificially added by netizens later, and did not exist in the original video released on March 6. Another video, which still hangs on Zelenskiy's Instagram page and has not been deleted, is said to be "suspicious" packaging that is highly similar to the phone's charging plug (including the data cable) and the iPhone Lightning Charge; the "white powder" consists of two parts, presumably the desktop decorative line and the family portrait frame reflection.