In an emotional video posted across social media on Thursday, Arnold Schwarzenegger debunked Russian disinformation about the war on Ukraine and told President Vladimir V. Putin: “You started this war. You are leading this war. You can stop this war.”
The statement, subtitled in Russian, directly addressed the people of Russia, where Mr. Schwarzenegger has long had an immense following, both as an international celebrity and as a politician. As governor of California, he conducted a trade mission to the country.
Mr. Schwarzenegger’s Twitter account, at the time of his video post, was among just 22 followed by the Russian president’s account.
“I am speaking to you today because there are things that are going on in the world that are being kept from you, terrible things that you should know about,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said, citing Russian propaganda.
“Ukraine did not start this war,” he said. “Neither did nationalists or Nazis. Those in power in the Kremlin started this war. This is not the Russian people’s war.”
The video had been viewed nearly two million times on Twitter alone by the time the sun rose in California, where Mr. Schwarzenegger taped it on Tuesday at his home.
The former governor’s social media accounts have nearly 61 million followers, according to Daniel Ketchell, his spokesman, who said the statement was written by Mr. Schwarzenegger and his communications team and fact checked by retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, whom Mr. Schwarzenegger knows socially.
Formerly a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, Colonel Vindman was a prominent witness in former President Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment trial, testifying about a phone call in which Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for help with investigations against his political opponents.
In a response to a Twitter post from Mr. Ketchell sharing Mr. Schwarzenegger’s video, Rob Flaherty, the White House director of digital strategy, called the statement “really, really remarkable.”
Mr. Ketchell said, however, that the video was made without the knowledge or involvement of President Biden’s administration, which has approached other social media influencers with requests to help combat disinformation.
“This came from Arnold’s heart, not the government,” Mr. Ketchell said.
Like many high-profile figures, Mr. Schwarzenegger initially expressed sympathy and solidarity with the Ukrainian people in the immediate aftermath of the Russian attack, but had otherwise refrained from commenting extensively on the situation. As the situation has worsened, Mr. Ketchell said, the celebrity has been inundated on social media with pleas, particularly from Europe, to leverage his platform.
He said the war also was weighing on Mr. Schwarzenegger personally. The former governor, born in Austria, refers in the video to the traumatic war experience of his father, who fought with the Nazi army when it attacked Leningrad during World War II.
Late last week after conversations with a number of friends and advisers, Mr. Ketchell said, Mr. Schwarzenegger decided to deliver an address like the one he had posted last year, condemning efforts by the American right wing to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Those remarks garnered more than 70 million page views.
In his remarks about Ukraine, which were also posted on Telegram, where many Russians can still access information blocked by the government, Mr. Schwarzenegger called the invasion an “illegal war” and a “human catastrophe,” and told Russian soldiers that “your lives, your limbs, your futures are being sacrificed for a senseless war being condemned by the entire world.”
FEATURED IMAGE: In a video released on Thursday, Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed Russian soldiers, civilians, and President Vladimir Putin. Credit…Tracy Nguyen for The New York Times
By Shawn Hubler/The New York Times
