The top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday blasted the screening of a Russian "propaganda" film at the Venice Film Festival.
Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova presented "Russians at War", a documentary in which she embedded with a Russian battalion as it advanced across eastern Ukraine after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
But there has been outrage across Ukrainian cultural and political circles against what many consider a pro-Kremlin film that seeks to whitewash and justify Moscow's assault.
Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, called it "shameful" that the "propaganda film" was shown.
In a social media post, he asked why "Anastasia Trofimova, as well as some other Russian cultural figures -- a country that kills Ukrainians, our children every day -- can work in the civilised world at all".
Trofimova has said that she wants to show the "absolutely ordinary guys" who were fighting for Russia and that her documentary belies the notion in the West that all Russian soldiers are war criminals.
Daria Zarivna, a Ukrainian social activist and an advisor to Yermak, said the film sought to "justify the Russian military, which is directly responsible for crimes against the Ukrainian people".
She also accused Trofimova of a "blatant silencing of war crimes and an attempt to blur the line between victim and aggressor".
Prominent figures in Ukrainian cinema also slammed the documentary.
"This film may mislead you into believing that it is an anti-war film, one that questions the current regime in Russia," Darya Bassel, a producer who watched the film at the festival, said in a Facebook post.
"However, what I witnessed is a prime example of pure Russian propaganda," she said.
She said the film featured soldiers who repeat false Kremlin narratives about Ukrainians being "Nazis", accusing Trofimova of ignoring Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014.
Iryna Tsilyk, a Ukrainian filmmaker, called what she said were Trofimova's attempts to promote a pro-peace message "vomit".
She also criticised the Venice organisers for choosing to showcase "something that smells so bad".