{"id":31269,"date":"2026-08-21T16:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/31269\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T16:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:46:07","slug":"ukraine-sanctions-popular-russian-cartoon-masha-and-the-bear-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/31269\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine sanctions popular Russian cartoon \u2018Masha and the Bear\u2019 | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Zelenskyy signs decree imposing sanctions on producers, accuses cartoon show of spreading \u2018pro-Russian propaganda\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"avatar\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/author\/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787330766_626_2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg\"   aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Published On 21 Aug 202621 Aug 2026<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine has sanctioned the popular Russian cartoon \u2018Masha and the Bear\u2019 in a step to ban the children\u2019s show, accusing the producers of spreading \u201cpro-Russian narratives\u201d and threatening Ukrainian national security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cUkraine has imposed sanctions against the producers and distributors of the Russian animated series \u2018Masha and the Bear\u2019,\u201d Ukrainian Culture Minister, Tetyana Berezhna, said on X on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThis creates legal grounds to block the content in Ukraine and engage international platforms to restrict its monetisation and distribution,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the decree on Thursday, imposing sanctions against creators and distributors of the animated series, including its studio, Animaccord.<\/p>\n<p>The series on the YouTube channel alone has been viewed more than 37 billion times, with some individual episodes topping more than four billion views. It is broadcast in about 100 countries.<\/p>\n<p>The show follows a mischievous little girl Masha and her friend, a retired circus bear. But the cartoon has faced criticism in Ukraine and its allies, including the United Kingdom and Estonia, for serving as an instrument of Russia\u2019s soft power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In June, Ukraine protested against the move by Netflix to acquire the rights to stream new seasons of \u2018Masha and the Bear\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, the Ukrainian YouTube channel for \u2018Masha and the Bear\u2019 topped the ranking of the most popular channels for children in the country last August. It currently has over 18 million followers.<\/p>\n<p>The sanctions follow Russia\u2019s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Russian cultural products have become less widespread in Ukraine due to continual boycotts and official restrictions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/2\/25\/list-of-sanctions-on-russia-after-invasion\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unveiled by Ukraine\u2019s allies<\/a> in the wake of the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussia propaganda has no place on children\u2019s screens,\u201d Minister Berezhna said on X.<\/p>\n<p>Russia dismissed the allegations. When asked about the sanctions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the cartoon series has \u201cconquered the world\u201d by promoting \u201cthe finest human qualities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4872619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP368331471338-1787324011.jpg\" alt=\"An animator works a on new episode of the Masha and the Bear cartoon series in Moscow, Russia. [Ivan Sekretarev\/AP]\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/>An animator works on a new episode of the Masha and the Bear cartoon series in Moscow [File: Ivan Sekretarev\/AP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy signs decree imposing sanctions on producers, accuses cartoon show of spreading \u2018pro-Russian propaganda\u2019. Published On 21 Aug&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11208,30,431,82,79,25,6,2551,26],"class_list":["post-31269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-europe","tag-media","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-television","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}