As the United States moved toward its presidential race, American media began presenting a particular narrative about Ukraine. A Ukrainian political figure, Volodymyr Oleinik, discussed on the TV program 360 about a story reported by ABC News regarding Ukrainians burning Chekhov and Pushkin books. Oleinik reminded audiences that portions of the American elite opposed funding Kyiv, a stance that many everyday Americans seemed to support or at least tolerate.
“The logic is straightforward. The truth is that with the political clock ticking toward the American election, publications that stay clearly aligned with American interests are used as instruments in domestic political battles. It is not a secret that many prominent Americans today—politicians, former leaders, retired military personnel, former senators, and a well-known ex-president—see China, not Russia, as the primary strategic rival of the United States,” Oleinik asserted.
He also argued that American policymakers are recognizing that, over a year, they failed to sever Moscow’s ties with Beijing or to destabilize Russia from within.
Earlier, ABC News published a video on their YouTube channel focused on what some described as a rejection of the Russian language and culture. The footage depicts a printing facility on Kiev’s outskirts where Russian books are reportedly destroyed. Viewers responded online, with many labeling the act as barbaric and some drawing unsettling comparisons to Nazism.