Arnold Schwarzenegger appeals to Russian people to reject Kremlin misinformation

Starting with a tale about meeting his hero, the world champion Russian weightlifter Yuri Petrovich Vlasov, in Vienna when he was a 14-year-old, Schwarzenegger went on to explain his deepening affection and admiration for the kindness of the Russian people.

The 74-year-old Republican, who started as a bodybuilder before reaching worldwide fame in action films, called on Putin to stop the invasion. He said thousands of Russian soldiers had been killed while their leaders had lied to them.

Austria-born Schwarzenegger told the story of how his father, who fought for Germany in the second world war, was left broken by his experiences of the battle of Leningrad, in which he was wounded. He went on to tell Russian soldiers that they have been lied to, and that thousands of them have already been killed.

The video concludes with Schwarzenegger pointing out that 11 million Russians have family connections to Ukraine.