When the Russian-Ukraine war began on Feb 24, 2022 it was all across the news. Then, as time passed, it became more and more on the back of people’s minds. Today, there are YouTubers that are still following the war. The Russian-Ukraine war that was instigated by Russia to bring down Ukraine must be stopped.

From an outside point of view, the people of Russia look like they are ignorantly following the Russian regime. The Russian government censors most if not all of the media it publishes. This censorship has led to successful propaganda on the television for why Russia should prevail in the war. Niki Proshin, a YouTuber following the war, states that “when I was doing street interviews about the ‘special operation,’ less than 10 percent of people dared to talk.” This means that in the martial law of Russia at the moment, anyone can be taken away for anything remotely suspicious.

A YouTube channel that is designated for the sole purpose of posting the Russian government’s propaganda to the Internet is the Russian Media Monitor. In a recent video, posted on May 31, Vladimir Solovyov, the T.V. show host talks about drones over Moscow, talking about how “war will touch every one of us … we are at war with NATO.” Solovyov continues on in the TV program to talk about how Ukraine is built on Nazis, whom everyone in the world knows as the ‘bad guys.’ Once establishing that, Solovyov mentions drastic measures, such as “Kyiv should be dismantled, Odessa should be dismantled. As well as Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk,” all of whom are major cities in Ukraine. About three minutes later, Solovyov invites Andrey Franzovich Klintsevich, who is the Head of the Center for Study of Military and Political Conflicts to speak on the show. Klintsevich talks about the drones over moscow as mosquitos biting a giant. “It is time to turn up the heat to drain the swamp to kill the mosquitos and have more anti aircraft to do so.” In response, Solovyov says that “drones work for Americans only while Starlink exists. So if we launch nukes into space and destroy Starlink satellites the drones will no longer work for them.” For reference, Starlink is a satellite internet constellation, which is another method of internet service providers. On the Starlink website, they say “Starlink Mobility provides 100% coverage in your country and every country where Starlink service is available across the globe.” So when top Russian officials talk about ‘carefully sending nukes into space to destroy the Starlink satellites’ rather than small rockets to do the job, they would need over 30 nukes to take down most of the United States’ military satellites. Klintsevich says that “Americans only have about 40 military satellites, 400 commercial and civilian satellites” and sending nukes “To destroy one commercial satellite and saying ‘yours will be next!’ will drive them into bankruptcy. … Commercial and not government owned, can’t have much retaliation from the USA … chill their (USA) money making ability.”

On the flip side, a street interview channel, 1420, takes interviews to the people of Russia to talk about this sensitive topic. With the civilians of Russia having limited access to the Internet, 1420 posted a video where they interviewed Russian people on why Russia is the most sanctioned country in the world. The 1420 staff interviewed Andrei, who is a 40 year old businessman in Russia. Andrei stated that “apparently, from their point of view, we are doing something wrong. I do not know though, I think we are doing everything right … No one wants competition” This exemplifies the way propaganda from top Russian officials has gotten to the people of Russia. This goes to show how little the people of Russia have access to the unfiltered internet to see the horrors of war they are imposing on Ukraine. Mark, who is a 17-year-old student in Russia, initially says that “ I doubt our country is the most sanctioned in the world.” When given the statistic that Russia has 14,000+ total sanctions versus the second top sanctioned country in the world which has just over 4,000, Mark said, “Other countries are trying to crush Russia because they understand the threat.” The propaganda from Russia’s top officials is prevalent and has an effect on the mindset of the people of Russia.

As time continues to pass, let us never forget the Russian-Ukraine war and how it has impacted everyone. Censorship will always be around in one form or another, but freedom of the press is a requirement for keeping the global economy and world stage working to bring more good. The censorship of media for the people of Russia and the Russian-Ukraine war must be settled. In the words of Proshin from his interview experience with 1420 in Russia, “Be kind to people and bring more good into our world.”