Video shows Russian state TV host yelling at a veteran who complained that troops were dying in Ukraine

• Vladimir Eranosianv, a Russian navy veteran, called for a moment of silence for Russian troops who died in Ukraine.
• State TV host Alexei Gudoshnikov shouted him down, saying: “Our guys are destroying fascists.”
• Russia has acknowledged troop deaths but authorities are painting the invasion as successful.

A host on a state-run Russian TV channel berated a veteran who called for a moment of silence for Russian troops who had died in Ukraine, claiming instead that Russia was winning and killing “fascists.”

In a recent episode of “Open Air,” a talk show broadcast on the Russian defense ministry’s official Zvezda TV channel, Alexei Gudoshnikov attacked the Russian Navy veteran Vladimir Eranosian after he spoke about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The date of the original broadcast is unclear but it appears to be from March 9. Insider found no evidence of the episode on Zvedva’s own social media feeds.

Read the exchange here, translated from Russian by Insider:

Eranosian: “The fact that there are so many people here with fighting experience that passed through Afghanistan and Chechen campaigns and the Donbas, there are really our guys there, and the Donetsk and Luhansk people and our guys from the special operation are dying now and our country …”

Gudoshnikov: “No, no, no, no, I don’t want to listen to it. Stop! Can’t you stop? Enough!”

Eranosian: “I just want us to stand up now and commemorate in silence, a minute of silence, those guys who are fighting for Russia in Donbas.”

Gudoshnikov: “Can you stop now? I will tell you now what our guys are doing there. Our guys are destroying fascists … [interjection] … Let me finish talking. It’s a triumph of Russian weapons, it’s a triumph of the Russian army, it’s the rebirth of Russia.”

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and its forces have since moved deep into the country, seizing several cities and shelling others. One of the reasons Russia has given to justify the invasion was the so-called liberation of Donetsk and Luhansk, two pro-Kremlin regions in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

However, Ukrainian resistance has been tough, and multiple Western officials said they believe the Russian offensive is behind schedule. 

Estimates around the Russian death toll vary wildly.

Ukraine’s military said Friday that more than 12,000 Russian troops had been killed since the offensive began. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that a US official estimated that Russia had lost between 5,000 to 6,000 troops in that time frame.

Russia has acknowledged that troops were dying in Ukraine, but has refrained from giving an exact number.

Gudoshnikov’s reference to Ukrainians as “fascists” echoed the line taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has said that the invasion — which the Russian government refers to a special military operation” — was aimed at the “denazification of Ukraine” and stopping a “genocide” of ethnic Russians.

Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish, and there has been no evidence of genocide in the country.

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Eranosian wrote he was part of the Russian military reserves and acknowledged he had inadvertently become a symbol of resistance for Ukrainian nationalists.