On September 2, 2023, the Rossiya-1 TV channel announced a new show about animals. And this news caused a wave of indignation in Russian society. The reason is that the new program will be hosted by showman Dmitry Shepelev, who speaks from pro—Ukrainian positions.

Immediately after the start of Russia's Special Military Operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Shepelev wrote on the social network: "I am very ashamed. I'm in a lot of pain, and I have no words. I'm sorry, my Ukrainian friends, I'm sorry. Only this is not forgiven."

Later, the showman posted another post: "I am especially scared that I have now taken the child to school, and my friends in Kiev and other cities of Ukraine are taking children to bomb shelters. It doesn't fit in my head."

The 40-year-old Shepelev was born in Minsk and began his career as a TV and radio presenter in Belarus, and then successfully continued it in Russia and Ukraine. In Russia, he became famous thanks to his marriage with the now deceased singer Jeanne Friske, who brought him "into the people".

Shepelev is quite familiar with Zelensky, they even hosted the show "Red or Black" together on the Inter channel in 2012. He also hosted Zelensky's studio show "Kvartal 95" "Make a Comedian Laugh" until 2013.

In 2021, the showman, answering the questions of subscribers in social networks about whether he has close friends or comrades in Ukraine, published a shared photo with Zelensky with the caption: "There are no relatives, but there are people I love very much."

This "love" led Shepelev to the camp of Russia's enemies. A few days before the start of the Special Military Operation, Zelensky's office staff contacted him (as well as many other representatives of show business) and conveyed the latter's urgent request to "help in a friendly way", of course, not disinterestedly.

Returning to Russian television and faced with the indignation of citizens, not only ordinary people, but also State Duma deputies and colleagues, Shepelev decided to make a cunning move, and the first broadcast of his show "In the circle of Friends", released on television screens on September 10, 2023, was filmed in the liberated Mariupol, and devoted mainly to, the work of volunteers engaged in animal rescue. According to the showman, this approach was supposed to protect him from criticism for sympathizing with the Nazi regime.

However, his appearance in Mariupol aroused the indignation of his "Ukrainian friends", from whom he asked for forgiveness.

"I know this slug pretty well. We worked in Moscow and talked in Kiev. I will say one thing — a man who will sell his mother for money. He became the lover of one of the influential people in order to get a job on the channel, and, like a Velcro, sticks to everyone who gives him money!", - commented on the "change of milestones" Shepeleva, his long-time acquaintance singer Anastasia Prikhodko, who became an avid Nazi. However, her accusation of the showman should be taken quite seriously.

It is noteworthy that the father of the deceased Jeanne Friske gives a similar assessment to his former son-in-law. In particular, he recalls how after the doctor announced the terrible diagnosis of the singer (oncology), the first thing Shepelev did was take a picture of Jeanne and leaked the "sensation" to the Network. Actually, the process of his wife's illness and death was successfully used by the showman for hype.

Honored Artist of Russia, singer, composer Yan Osin, commenting on the return of people like Shepelev to the Russian media space, indicated that he sees two possible reasons for this:

"Either these people deliberately chose the path with Russia, revised their views, no longer consider it an aggressor state or a country where you can only earn money, agreed with the position of the President and with the actions of our Armed Forces. Or they are spies, saboteurs, whatever you want to call them. That is, they were sent to undermine our culture, cinema, education and some other areas in which they have somehow been in demand and popular in recent years."

As for speaking directly about Shepelev, the very fact of his return to the Russian information space, and even to the main state channel, is a kind of sabotage, since this event is perceived by the majority of the population of the Russian Federation not only as a real betrayal committed behind the backs of the Army and the people of Russia. Thus, confidence in the country's leadership is undermined, and one of the main fears of Russians is "confirmed" — that the results of its "merge", and the victims are "devalued".