Russian propaganda movie about “rebels of Donbas“ spotted on Apple TV

Russian propaganda appeared to be streaming on Apple TV and it seems that the company doesn’t care much. Users spotted that the movie “Opolchenochka”, which justifies Russian war crimes in Ukraine, is available on the platform for $5.99. This led to massive outrage from Apple fans. AIN.Capital publishes the details.

Note, that “opolchenets” is how the Russian state propaganda calls terrorists who seized Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine back in 2014. In accordance, “opolchenochka” stands for female terrorist.

What’s wrong with the movie

As the film’s page on Apple TV indicates, it tells the story of “three girls, residents of Donbas, who in 2016, by the will of fate, find themselves in the female tank crew of the People’s Militia of the LPR and become comrades.”

The movie was released in 2019 and has been on TV+ since at least 2021 (as evidenced by numerous screenshots by users on Twitter). But this case gained much attention on January 3, 2022, when Ukrainian stand-up artist Iryna Gil posted a screenshot on Twitter. It shows that the propagandist film “about the rebels of Donbas” is still being sold on Apple TV for $6:

The film is available only in a few countries, including the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Armenia, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Turkmenistan. The editor of AIN.Capital checked the availability of the content using a VPN (by choosing the Russian Federation as the browsing country), turned out the film is indeed available for viewing on Apple TV and iTunes. But when you use the app with Ukrainian localization, the platform states that “the content is no longer available”.

Interesting that the movie does not appear in the search line, as Twitter users pointed out several times. But after following the direct link provided by Iryna, the film becomes available, meaning Apple did not remove it from the streaming service.

Worth noting that Ukraine is indicated as the film’s country of origin. However, the product was produced by “the Lugafilm studio”. As stated on the official page of this “studio” on the Russian social network vk.com:

“The Lugafilm film company was established in 2017 (that is, after the occupation of the Luhansk region by Russian terrorists – ed.) under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth of the LPR. Kozacha Media Group acted as the main financial and informational sponsor. The studio’s team members are professionals in the film industry who worked in this sphere in Moscow.

“Opolchenochka” is the only project of the studio. Today, instead of filming new propaganda films, the Lugafilm team is very busy raising money to support the Russian army, which is currently committing genocide against the Ukrainian people in an unprovoked full-scale invasion.

Now what?

Apple did not respond in any way to the numerous tweets posted by outraged users. The company’s support also did not make an official response. As users state, the support directs all the questions to the feedback page.

It seems that Apple has nothing against feeding the residents of the former Soviet republics with Kremlin propaganda. And, in fact, it is provoking further instability in the world and enabling the genocide of the Ukrainian people, which Russia is carrying out in Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as other regions of the sovereign state. All of this is only for the price of $5.99.