After Zelensky bans ‘Masha and the Bear’ children’s show, Moscow accuses Kyiv of starting a ‘war on cartoons’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine’s decision to ban the Russian animated series Masha and the Bear “demonstrates the ugliness of the Kyiv regime.”
“These cartoons, they won over the whole world,” Peskov told reporters, as quoted by the Telegram channel Vy Slushali. “They won over the whole world, no exaggeration — won it over with kindness, won it over with humanity, won it over with propaganda, in the good sense of the word, for truly the finest human qualities.”
“Ukraine has started a war on cartoons, too,” he said.
On August 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree imposing sanctions on the creators of Masha and the Bear — the studio Animaccord and five individuals.
The sanctions were based on a decision by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, which found that the series spreads pro-Russian narratives disguised as children’s content.
Masha and the Bear has been accused of spreading Russian propaganda in other countries as well. In July 2026, a group of British politicians wrote an open letter demanding that the series be pulled from streaming services. The letter’s authors singled out an episode in which Masha, while guarding the Bear’s vegetable garden, first puts on a peaked cap with a blue hatband and a red star — similar to the caps worn by NKVD personnel, the Stalin-era Soviet secret police — and then puts on a tank crewman’s helmet.
Animaccord, the studio behind Masha and the Bear, denies the accusations, stressing that it has not operated in Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The series has been running since 2009; its seventh and most recent season was released in 2025.
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