I think we should stand behind Ukraine, too. But if it’s at the cost of a core value, freedom of speech, then what the hell is the point?

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If Anastasia Trofimova’s film Russians at War is a piece of Kremlin-approved propaganda, as its legions of detractors allege, then whoever approved it should stay well clear of any high windows.

The Russian-Canadian’s documentary was recently disowned under pressure from Ukrainian groups by co-funder TV Ontario (after it initially defended it) and then cancelled over security concerns Thursday by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), also after initially defending it. I have watched it. It’s a portrait of sad, drunk, chain-smoking, confused, ill-equipped conscripts and volunteers surviving on a mixture of adrenaline, boredom, fear, vodka and misinformation about Ukraine — notably, in at least one case, that they are essentially fighting the second coming of the Third Reich.

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Most of the soldiers and medics we meet in the documentary are far more cynical about the war, however, and in various ways. One shakes his head as he peruses a pro-government newspaper distributed to the front lines, bitterly dismissing it as “propaganda.”

“After watching TV, I volunteered, let’s say as a patriot, … for six months. Now I’m already in my seventh month here,” he tells Trofimova.

“They say the only way back to Russia is feet first (i.e., in a body bag),” he says. “If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have come. Because I too had life plans.”

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