Cocaine? No, Saliva: NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week
Debunk: Pro-Kremlin Sources Falsely Claim Zelensky’s Saliva Is Actually Cocaine
What happened: Pro-Russian accounts are falsely claiming that during a recorded Nov. 25, 2025, address to his nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was caught with cocaine falling out of his nose, building on a longstanding Russian propaganda narrative that Zelensky is a cocaine addict.
A closer look: In late November 2025, accounts shared a short clip of Zelensky speaking that appeared to show a substance dropping from his face. Users sharing the video claimed that the substance was cocaine.
- Pro-Kremlin X user @MyLordBebo posted the video with the caption: “Cocaine fell out of Zelensky’s nose while speaking.” The post garnered 5.1 million views and 31,000 likes in one week.
- Pro-Russia X account @mog_russEN posted the video and stated, “During Zelenskyy’s evening address, a large white substance fell from his nose on live camera… resembling Cocaine.” The post received 1.4 million views and 9,900 likes in one week.
Actually: NewsGuard viewed a high-resolution, slowed-down version of the video, which was originally uploaded to Zelensky’s YouTube channel. The video clearly shows that the substance does not fall from Zelensky’s nose, but rather from his mouth. And the substance appears to be saliva.
Pro-Kremlin sources have advanced baseless claims that Zelensky uses cocaine since at least 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, spreading manipulated footage as supposed proof, Reality Check previously reported.
- There are no credible reports that Zelensky uses cocaine or has done so in the past.
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NewsGuard Academy: Using X’s ‘About This Account’ Tool to Uncover Foreign Influence
Today’s tutorial shows how to use and understand X’s new “About This Account” feature, which indicates the country or region where an account is based. Learn where to find this information on X, how it can be used to uncover hidden agendas, as well as its limitations.
This tool has exposed the undisclosed foreign origins of multiple influential accounts that have spread a slew of false claims.
You find, we report: Let your fellow Reality Check readers know about false claims you run across online. Our analysts debunk false claims before any others 80% of the time, but we can’t catch everything. If you find what looks like a false claim, let us know. We’ll investigate and report back in Reality Check.
Reality Check is produced by co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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