Early reports of the Russian invasion of Ukraine suggested that President Vladimir Putin’s military had deployed actor Steven Seagal, in addition to his troops. And while the bizarre information released at the time turned out to be false, a Russian outlet published a video on Tuesday showing the former activist among the wreckage of the Olenivka prison in eastern Ukraine, where a recent attack killed dozens of Ukrainian POWs.
Russia and Ukraine each blame the destruction of the prison, while Moscow claims Ukrainian troops used US-made munitions — a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS — to bring down the building, according to the Washington Post.
In a video posted to Russian news site TVZVEZDA, Seagal, who has been identified as a special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for humanitarian relations between Russia and the US, appears to be acting as a spokesperson against the use of HIMARS through Ukraine.
“It definitely looks like a rocket,” Seagal is said to have said. “If you look at the burning and other details, of course it’s not a bomb. Not to mention that Russia really does have a lot of artifacts from HIMARS. This is where HIMARS struck, 50 people were killed and another 70 were injured.”
According to the Russian site, Seagal added a conspiracy angle by suggesting that HIMARS was used by Ukrainian forces because the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wanted to silence a “Nazi” held in prison.
“The interesting thing is that one of the Nazis killed is a Nazi who just started talking a lot about Zelensky,” Seagal added, “and Zelensky is responsible for the orders about torture and other atrocities that violate not only the Geneva War Convention , but are also crimes against humanity.”
However, The Post noted that the images of the attack on the Olenivka prison are not consistent with HIMARS.
“The experts were unable to say definitively what caused the damage, but they pointed to a lack of shrapnel and craters and only minimal damage to the interior walls in the available footage of the aftermath,” the Post reported. “Instead, there were visible signs of intense fire, which contradicts damage caused by the most common HIMARS warhead.”
TVZVEZDA reported that Seagal was one of the representatives who visited the prison.
“Media representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Nicaragua, North Korea were introduced to the evidence that the attack was carried out by Ukrainian militants and from HIMARS, and also saw with their own eyes all the destruction at the site of these barbaric shelling.” reported the news site.
Open-source intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander weighed in on the accuracy of the Seagal images and indicated their authenticity.
Images of the BBC prison appear to match Seagal’s surroundings as he made his statement. The same footage was also linked to a scene in which the action star is standing on a bench with explosion artifacts, images taken two weeks after the area was originally photographed, Alexander suggested on Twitter.
“[That’s] not how I would expect this ‘smoking gun’ evidence to be treated as Russia, 1. believed it to be real evidence and 2. had any intention of letting UN investigators into the site,” Alexander told Military Times.
Odessa Journal also verified the visit.
Seagal is known for his pro-Russian status. In particular, he showed strong support for Putin’s plan regarding the annexation of Crimea. In 2016, the actor received Russian citizenship.
