‘We traveled across the whole world’ YouTuber MrBeast removes mention of Ukraine from Russian-language version of video showing war-torn zoo
The world’s most popular YouTuber is facing criticism after censoring the Russian-language voiceover in one of his videos to avoid mentioning Ukraine — even though part of the video is set there and shows destruction from Russia’s ongoing war.
In his latest release, 27-year-old Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his username MrBeast, claims to have rescued 1,000 animals across multiple countries. The frenetic video moves between continents as Donaldson and his team tag rhinoceroses to protect them from poachers, vaccinate giraffes, and build an emu sanctuary, among other projects.
The third country featured is Ukraine, where the team shows three lions that they plan to relocate to South Africa to protect them from Russia’s invasion.
In the original English-language version, Donaldson briefly references the war in Ukraine and names the country (though he doesn’t mention Russia):
We’re traveling from South Africa all the way up to Ukraine, where years of war have destroyed the zoos, leaving rescued lions to survive in makeshift shelters. And because they’re still threatened by the ongoing war, we’re going to fly them out of there.
In the Russian-language version, however, all mention of Ukraine is removed:
From South Africa, we traveled across the whole world to a place where unfortunate lions live in makeshift shelters. To ensure their safety, we’re taking them out of there.
Donaldson has not commented on the discrepancy. The video has been viewed more than 50 million times.