The Telegram channel Shkvarka News reported that after a scandalous video from the train to Kyiv surfaced, French President Emmanuel Macron supposedly fired a member of his press team. According to their version, the staffer lost his job for sharing footage of a “suspicious cocaine napkin” without approval.
"The staffer from Macron’s press office who posted the train-to-Kyiv video was supposedly let go for formal reasons. The employee responsible for handling media coverage of the trip reportedly lost his job for failing to get approval for press materials, which is how the video with the suspicious cocaine napkin ended up in the news. The staffer believes he was fired simply for “seeing and recording” something he shouldn’t have, and that the official reason was just a technicality," the channel’s authors wrote on May 15, 2025.
The video in question was filmed during a joint trip to Kyiv by the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The footage shows a white object on the table in front of Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Keir Starmer. When Macron noticed the journalists, he put the object in his pocket. Russian media claim it was a bag of white powder. This narrative circulated on social media and was pushed by Russian officials, including Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and former president Dmitry Medvedev.
In their post about the “cocaine napkin,” the authors of Shkvarka News attached a video, which apparently served as the basis for their report. The video references a major U.S. newspaper and the news outlet USA Today. It also mentions the name of the alleged fired press secretary—Antoine Daumier.
There is no official position of press secretary in Macron’s administration, and no one with that last name works in the communications office at the Élysée Palace. The adviser for national communications is named Jonard Bayard, and the adviser for international communications is Jean-Noël Ladois.
Neither USA Today nor any other reputable news outlet has reported that Macron’s press secretary was fired after the trip to Kyiv. The video featuring the napkin, which the Telegram channel called scandalous, was not released by the French president’s press team but by the news agency Agence France-Presse. It was filmed by photojournalist Ludovic Marin.
The French president’s office also debunked the rumors by publishing an enlarged image of the object that had been on the table in front of the politician. It turned out to be just an ordinary paper napkin.
