Steven Seagal has appeared on Russian state media to protect his stop by to a jail the place Ukrainian POWs ended up burned alive final month.
The former motion star, a Russian citizen given that 2016, said he went to see ‘evidence’ of what transpired – before repeating Kremlin propaganda that Kyiv was to blame.
Seagal, 70 and who also experienced a transient profession in a soul band, went on to describe himself as a ‘diplomat’ and mentioned he is developing an ‘unbiased’ documentary about the Ukraine war in spite of professing his like and admiration for Vladimir Putin.
Olenivka Prison, in an region of the Donbas occupied by pro-Russian forces, was burned down on July 29 with about 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war though to have died. Numerous of them have been hero veterans of the fight for Mariupol.
Steven Seagal has long gone on Russian point out Tv set – presenting himself as a ‘diplomat’ – to justify checking out a Russian POW camp where by 50 Ukrainians ended up burned to dying
Grilled by Putin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, Seagal parroted Kremlin propaganda that the attack was carried out by Ukraine – indicating he was ‘one billion % sure’
Russia says Ukraine purchased a strike on the jail and carried it out making use of US-equipped HIMARS missiles that have been wreaking havoc driving Putin’s frontline.
Kyiv claims that is a lie and Moscow burned down the jail, likened by previous detainees to a concentration camp, to cover evidence of torture carried out there.
Western observers and experts concur with Ukraine, saying photographs of the warehouse the place the prisoners died demonstrates it mostly intact following the hearth – some thing they say would not be the circumstance if it were being struck by an explosive HIMARS rocket.
Beds within the setting up the place Ukrainian prisoners burned to loss of life in their slumber are also undisturbed, and there is no visible blast crater.
HIMARS rocket fragments displayed on Russian condition Tv set as ‘evidence’ of the strike could conveniently have been gathered elsewhere on the battlefield and introduced to the setting up, they added.
In the meantime other prisoners at the camp, who are in touch with households outdoors its walls, also did not report hearing an incoming rocket or explosion.
In get to counter that narrative, Russia sent Seagal to carry out his have inspection – with the ‘diplomat’ concluding ‘one billion percent’ that HIMARS was to blame.
American actor Steven Seagal is witnessed standing inside of the bombed-out compound the place at least 50 Ukrainian prisoners have been killed on July 29
Seagal speaks to Ukrainian prisoners via metal bars. Seagal vocally supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014
Seagal, a longtime buddy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, examined shrapnel in the city of Olenivka
He explained to propagandist Vladimir Solovyov: ‘I know a little little bit about these points. I can inform you, one particular billion percent, it was not a bomb that would blow up from the floor.
‘You could see in which a missile came from outdoors and incinerated almost everything.’
A martial arts pro and Buddhist who starred in action movies in the course of the 1990s, Seagal’s occupation fell aside when he was accused by numerous female co-stars of sexual assault and confronted allegations he mistreated stuntmen on set.
Immediately after a brief profession in a soul band, he commenced cosying up to Russia around 2014 – the very last time Putin invaded Ukraine – calling the attack ‘very reasonable’.
All over the exact time he branded Putin ‘one of the biggest world leaders’, and then became a Russian citizen two a long time afterwards.
In 2017, he was banned from entering Ukraine after he was considered a ‘threat to countrywide security’ and in 2018 he was manufactured unique envoy for Russia to strengthen ties with the US by Putin himself.
He has continued to parrot Kremlin propaganda through the Ukraine war, and now claims to be producing a well balanced documentary about it.
His check out to Olenivka appears to be portion of the movie-earning procedure, with photos pumped out by Russian state media displaying him inspecting missile fragments and talking to prisoners there.
Seagal is recognized to be friendly with many other controversial entire world leaders, including Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and American actor Steven Seagal visit a freshly built sports complicated of Sambo-70 prominent wrestling faculty in Moscow
Lukashenko is a near ally of Putin and has continuously echoed the Russian president’s sentiments through his invasion of Ukraine, even calling the Russian military’s massacre of civilians in Bucha western propaganda.
Seagal has also mingled with the likes of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and previous president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, with whom he practiced karate.
Both equally Seagal and Putin are avid martial artists – Seagal is a longtime practitioner of aikido, when Putin has analyzed judo and sambo.
Putin was suspended as president of the Intercontinental Judo Federation just weeks in the past in reaction to the invasion of Ukraine.
Seagal was noticed celebrating his 70th birthday in Moscow in April, rubbing elbows with a lot of of Russia’s elite who have been sanctioned by western nations around the world.
Vladimir Soloviev, a controversial Russian Television set presenter who overtly backs Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, can be observed standing with Seagal.
Seagal tells the crowd in English ‘Each and each just one of you, you are my family and my pals. And I adore all of you and we stand with each other, as a result of thick and through thin.’
On April 10, the working day Seagal celebrated his birthday with Russia’s elite, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol mentioned additional than 10,000 civilians had died just after enduring months of Russian bombing raids and hunger because of to the siege.
