Russias forced POW videos and Trump to address U.N. assembly: Morning Rundown
Russia has coerced thousands of Ukrainian prisoners to denounce their leaders and country in propaganda videos.An NBC News poll shows how Americans’ views of immigration are shifting.
And the data center debate crosses religious lines.Here’s what to know today.Inside Russia’s industry of forced POW videosVolodymyr Srebrodolskyy, a Ukrainian soldier with gray hair and deep wrinkles, smoked a cigarette while speaking to his Russian captor behind the camera.“I don’t want to go back there,” Srebrodolskyy said, appearing to have turned against his country.
“It would be good if all of this ended quickly.”This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day.Sign up here to get it in your inbox.The video was Russian propaganda.
Weeks before it was posted on Telegram, Srebrodolskyy was fighting for Ukraine on the eastern front line against the men who captured him.Now, he was following their script.The propaganda worked.
Arguments over whether Srebrodolskyy betrayed his country tore apart his hometown of Karpylivka.Some labeled him a traitor.Srebrodolskyy died in captivity weeks after the video was shared.
When his body was ready for burial this spring, some of his neighbors — believing the propaganda — threatened violence against the village mayor if he allowed Srebrodolskyy to be placed in the town’s cemetery.Others defended him, saying he went to war willingly, without trying to evade the draft.
The arguments put the fate of his body in limbo.Thousands of such videos have been posted to Russian social media channels, some of them airing on state-run television.
They follow a formula: Ukrainian prisoners decry their commanders, decline to return home, denounce corruption and say they hope for the war to end soon.The message has been repeated since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 with few variations, reinforcing Russian narratives about the country it invaded and seeding distrust toward the army in Ukrainian c...