Scanning
-The online video “ZELINSKY publicly admitted taking cocaine” is not credible, and the video content has been edited and spliced.
-The original video is an interview with Zelensky by Pravda of Ukraine after Zelensky announced his participation in the presidential election in 2019. In the interview, ZELINSKY said that he was a coffee lover and denied that he smoked cocaine.
Event background
Recently, a video circulated on the Internet allegedly reflected ZELINSKY’s admission to taking drugs in an interview. “Cocaine makes me feel good and energetic.” So, does ZELINSKY’s drug use really “have a picture and a truth”?
Mingcha
Where does the video come from?
By intercepting the key frames of the video and anti searching, it is found that this 23 second video comes from the exclusive interview of Ukrainian Pravda with Zelensky in January 2019. Pravda posted a full video of the interview on its YouTube account, with a total length of 1 hour, 4 minutes and 51 seconds.
Original video of Pravda’s interview with ZELINSKY.
At the bottom of the complete interview video, “Pravda” gives the specific timeline of the video content, in which the content from the 7th minute to the 10th minute is “whether ZELINSKY takes drugs, his attitude towards alcohol, how to recover after a hard day, audience communication, and the language of parodying politicians”.
Original report timeline.
From 7:49 to 51 seconds in the video, ZELINSKY made it clear that “I don’t take drugs”（ Я не употребляю наркотики）。 At 8:02, he mentioned that he was a “coffee lover and liked coffee very much”.
The official website of the newspaper also released a text version of the interview, which directly quoted this dialogue. The host mentioned that “some people in politics say you’re ‘sitting on cocaine’”, Zelinski joked: “no, I’m sitting in a white chair. It’s not cocaine.” Then he added, “I don’t take drugs. I smell coffee because I’m a coffee lover. I like coffee.”
Screenshot of the text version of the report.
It is worth mentioning that the recent re dissemination of this old video three years ago dates back to last month. The anti search results also showed that the video was circulated on Vkontakte, a well-known social platform in Russia, no later than March 24, and then “transported” to other social platforms by netizens.
Screenshot of Vkontakte post.
Where does the “truth” of online video come from?
In the 12th second of the online video, ZELINSKY said, “I’m taking drugs”（ употребляю наркотики） But this is the result of editing.
From the 9th minute and 40th second of the complete video, Zelinski began to describe the content about his lifestyle, talking about walking his dog and playing tennis. The short video transmitted online for 23 seconds was intercepted from here. At the same time, the voice of Zelinski saying “I don’t take drugs” from the 7th minute and 49th seconds to 51st seconds was spliced after removing the negative word at the beginning of the sentence and changing it into “I take drugs”.
The screen of online video also has obvious splicing traces. In the content from the 7th minute 35 seconds to the 10th minute prompted by the reporting timeline, the host first appeared in the 9th minute 42 seconds, which was later than the only time ZELINSKY mentioned the word “drug abuse”. However, in the short video after editing, the host’s face appeared for the first time between the 7th and 8th seconds, while the content about “drug abuse” appeared in the 12th second. In the original video, when the sound of “I don’t take drugs” appears, the picture is ZELINSKY himself. When the online video uses the sound of “I take drugs”, the picture is aimed at the host.
Observing the environment behind ZELINSKY in the video, it is not difficult to find that in the 7th second of the video, a staff member walked quickly behind him. In the 10th second, there was no figure of the staff member, but in the 15th second, the figure appeared in the middle of the picture with the same trajectory.
From left to right are the 7th, 10th and 15th seconds respectively
To sum up, it can be judged that the online video about “ZELINSKY admitted taking drugs” is not credible, and the video content is the result of splicing. The original video is an interview with Zelinski by Pravda before the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. In the interview, ZELINSKY said that he was a coffee lover and denied that he smoked cocaine.