"This is prostitution". Zyubina, who was the first Ukrainian actress to refuse to film with Russians, spoke about the reasons for her decision

Leading Ukrainian actress Rimma Zyubina, who was the first to refuse to film with Russians in 2014, admitted that it was difficult for her. The most difficult thing in this situation was to stay true to her principles, not to succumb to persuasion, and to survive the set-up.

After the occupation of Crimea and Donetsk region, not every Ukrainian actor was able to give up earning in rubles, and not every Ukrainian viewer saw this as a problem. However, Rimma Zyubina could not do otherwise in those days. She spoke about this in a podcast by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

When the Russians occupied the peninsula, the actress did not want to stand aside. She wrote a post in which she clearly outlined her position. The Ukrainian publicly stated that any cooperation with the Russian Federation was over at that moment, although this position was met with a rather cold reception online and among her colleagues 10 years ago.

"After all this, maybe a week later, a casting director called me and said: "Listen, there's a great role here. It's a collaboration, a co-production with the Russians. I said: "Well, you read what I wrote." She said: "How about this: you wrote it on the 20th, and I called you on the 19th and you agreed." I say that this is prostitution, and it's not in my life plans," the star said.

It happened that the artist was set up, outright deceived. For example, once Rimma Zyubina was assured that she was filming a Ukrainian project, and in the credits, the star suddenly saw the name of the aggressor country.

"In that situation, it was too hard to stick to my principles. I lost filming days, I don't know how many, I lost a crazy amount of money," the artist said.

In addition, Rimma Zyubina did not receive support from her colleagues. Mostly she was teased for her integrity by those who decided to continue working with the aggressor country, although the artist did not name them.

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