A Chinese video blogger in Odessa challenges Beijing’s version of the war.

Within the southern Ukrainian port metropolis of Odessa, Wang Jixian typically begins his days by recording the sirens howling warnings to residents in opposition to Russian air assaults. It’s a part of his personal battle in opposition to the skewed, euphemistic depiction of the battle propagated by Moscow’s essential associate, China.

Mr. Wang, a Chinese language pc programmer who moved to Odessa for work final 12 months, has turn into one of many boldest voices difficult the Chinese language state-controlled media’s model of the battle, drawing lots of of 1000’s of viewers. Chinese language tv has glossed over the bloodshed attributable to Russian forces and pointedly averted calling President Vladimir V. Putin’s actions an invasion.

In video dispatches from his condominium or the streets, Mr. Wang has shifted between bleak and wryly matter-of-fact when describing life in wartime.

“That fearless neighbor is out strolling his canine once more,” he says in a single. However he exudes fury when discussing Chinese language nationalists who see Mr. Putin as a hero, justified in attacking Ukraine.

“Since final night time, the air raid alarms have sounded at the least 3 times, and the church bells rang out greater than that,” he stated close to the beginning of 1 latest broadcast. He then turned his digital camera on himself.

“Why are you afraid of individuals discovering out the reality?” he stated. “Why can solely these voices cheering on this bloody path be unfold?” he continued. “Some individuals inform me that these days it’s a society the place the robust devour the weak, the place energy comes from the barrel of a gun. Who stated that? The place is the sense in that?”

In a cellphone interview, Mr. Wang, 36, stated that he had been inundated with messages from Chinese language viewers.

He places his movies on YouTube, which individuals in China can view solely with software program to burrow previous censorship, in addition to on WeChat, a well-liked Chinese language social media service, though censors have restricted his most impassioned items there. His WeChat video channel has attracted greater than 94,000 subscribers.

Some viewers categorical thanks for puncturing the propaganda. However loads of messages come from fervent Chinese language nationalists calling him a traitor or, as Mr. Wang put it, “phrases that may’t be quoted by newspapers.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Wang stated, some individuals seem to have been swayed by his work.

“At first, it felt like everybody was supporting the Russians,” he stated. “However now I really feel like I’ve used my little little bit of affect to awaken at the least some Chinese language individuals and get them considering for themselves.”

He stated he had no intention of leaving Odessa except survival grew to become not possible. If it got here to that, he stated, “I’ll transfer — to a different metropolis in Ukraine.”

Pleasure Dong and Liu Yi contributed reporting and analysis.