Former astronaut Scott Kelly says Russians have been 'brainwashed' over Ukraine

• Former astronaut Scott Kelly said Russians defending the war in Ukraine have been "brainwashed."

• He has raised $65,000 to donate an ambulance to Ukraine through the United24 scheme.

• The former astronaut became an online "troll" of Russia's former space chief earlier this year.

Former astronaut Scott Kelly started the year as your average former NASA astronaut. Russian President Vladimir Putin's February invasion of Ukraine flung him into the spotlight for decidedly different reasons.

Kelly has used his 5.3 million followers on Twitter to blast Russia's attack on Ukraine, and played a part in the departure of Russia's top space official.

Now Kelly, who said Russians that believe they're defending themselves against Ukraine is the "stupidest thing I've ever heard," is putting his money where his mouth is by raising funds for an ambulance for Kyiv.

Trolling to oblivion

Kelly spent 340 days on the International Space Station with NASA as part of a program run in collaboration with Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

But the former astronaut added "Russia troll" to his space voyaging resume after Putin sent troops into Ukraine, battling on Twitter with former Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin. Kelly joked that McDonald's was hiring when Rogozin was fired by Putin in July.

In a call with Volodymyr Zelensky, Kelly said Ukraine's president told him he had "trolled Russian propagandists into oblivion."

But he also directed his anger at Russians more generally who endorse a message that Russia is defending itself from Ukrainian "Nazis".

"Some Russians that I know feel like I do about this. Like, this is immoral. This is illegal. This is horrific. They have guilt over it, because it's their country doing it," Kelly told Insider.

But he said others, including a former Russian colleague on the space station, believed Russia was only defending itself.

"How you can come to that conclusion when your army invaded another country is beyond my comprehension, and is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. But these are people that I thought were smart. I thought they were empathetic, but they actually seem to believe this.

"And the only conclusion I can come to is that they've just been conditioned. And brainwashed over decades through their state-controlled media to believe certain things."

Fighting fatigue

Kelly has just raised $65,000 to supply an ambulance for Ukraine through United24, Zelenskyy's main vehicle for collecting charitable donations to support his country.

He was offered an option to fundraise for an ambulance or a Tesla Powerwall for energy. Kelly says his background as a paramedic in the military, alongside the fact that Ukrainian medical facilities have faced ongoing bombardment, made it a simple choice.

The drive comes after Kelly raised $500,000 for Ukraine by auctioning an NFT. He told Insider he'd stepped up his efforts to counter a potential rise in public fatigue as the war drags on and energy bills soar across Europe.

Americans have begun to express less concern about the war, according to Pew research, while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested in October that a Republican-led house would stop sending what he called "blank checks" to Ukraine. Now that the GOP has control of the lower house, that may no longer be theoretical.

"The people that feel fatigued about a war, that's understandable. But just imagine how fatigued the Ukrainian military and Ukrainian people are having to live this horror personally."

But Kelly, whose twin brother Mark has just been re-elected as an Arizona senator, said he thinks there's enough appetite across Congress to continue financially supporting Ukraine.

Putin was dealt a heavy blow last week as Ukrainian forces retook the key strategic region of Kherson.

"They're really fighting not only for their own lives and their own land, and what they want to do and how to live, but they're also fighting for all of us," Kelly said. "And if Russia can get away with this, what's next?"

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