NHL career goal-scoring leader Alex Ovechkin on Thursday addressed his appearance in a video for Russian President Vladimir Putin's political party, saying he accepted the government's request without hesitation, was surprised by the backlash and supports his native country while reiterating previous comments that he "is for peace and love."
"I want the peace and love for everybody," Ovechkin told ESPN. "It doesn't matter who you are, American, Russian or Ukrainian. I hope everything's gonna be good and everything's gonna be done soon and we have peace and love in the world."
Asked how he would explain his decision to participate in the advertisement, in which Russia's foreign minister delivered a message closely aligned with propaganda blaming Ukrainians for the invasion of their country, Ovechkin replied that he was "not pro-war." He only "supports what's happening in Russia" and hopes the war will end soon, he said.
Of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Ovechkin said: "I'm not in politics. I can't say who's right and who's wrong." He added that he would support his country no matter what.
Ovechkin told ESPN that he filmed the ad three weeks ago and did not tell the Washington Capitals that he planned to participate in the campaign video before signing a one-year extension in July.
Before speaking with ESPN, Ovechkin answered questions from reporters about the video in a quiet, subdued voice before declaring, "OK, let's do hockey questions."
In the campaign video that aired in Russia earlier this month, Ovechkin stands with supporters of Putin's United Russia political party as Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov delivers a monologue warning anyone who comes at Russia "with a sword" to "expect no mercy: we will rise together, as we do today." Ovechkin, wearing a black polo shirt, stands stoically behind Lavrov. The messaging is consistent with state propaganda that blames Ukrainians for Russia's invasion, experts said.
Ovechkin's appearance earned international condemnation from critics of the regime, which has mounted an offensive against Ukraine that began in 2014 and expanded to a full-scale invasion in 2022 that has resulted in more than 1 million military and civilian casualties. In a letter to the NHL this week, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called on the league to consider banning Ovechkin over his participation in the ad.
"While Mr. Ovechkin has every right to hold personal political views, actively participating in campaign material for Putin's oppressive party while serving as the captain of an NHL franchise in our nation's capital raises serious questions about the standards expected of players who represent the League and their communities," Wilson wrote.
The NHL did not respond to multiple requests from ESPN for comment. Likewise, the Capitals declined to answer questions concerning the video and declined to make team owner Ted Leonsis available for comment.
Earlier this week, the Capitals issued a statement noting that "Alex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement" and that he and the team are "focused on the season ahead and the continued impact he makes on the ice and in our city."
The series of TV advertisements features more than 30 Putin supporters. One of them is Maria Lvova-Belova, a Russian official who has been involved in the kidnapping and "re-education" of Ukrainian children. Lvova-Belova, in a televised meeting with Putin, said she had personally taken a Ukrainian boy from war-ravaged Mariupol. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for her arrest in 2023. Ovechkin stands alongside her and others in a large group shot featured in the ads.
Academic experts in Russian propaganda said Ovechkin's appearance signifies a critical victory for Putin in his bid to justify the country's costly military campaign in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities have accused the Russian military of murdering more than 17,000 Ukrainian civilians, including more than 700 children.
"You can't look away from the fact that Russia is perpetuating a genocide on Ukrainian people," said Sarah Oates, a senior scholar in the field of political communication and democratization at the University of Maryland. "Putin has said Ukraine and Ukrainians have no right to exist. And this is a key reason for the invasion. Ovechkin supports Putin, he supports the Russian regime, and that means he supports genocide."
Asked about assertions that Russia is responsible for a genocide, Ovechkin told ESPN, "I hope it's not gonna, it's not gonna be like that," before a team media relations representative ended the interview.
Vitaly Kazakov, a postdoctoral researcher in media and journalism studies at Aarhus University in Denmark whose research focuses on the intersection of Russian politics and sports, said the ads amplify state messaging that absolves the Kremlin of moral responsibility in Ukraine.
"This is part of an effort to put the blame not on the Russian state, but onto external forces," he said.
In 2022, while the international sports community enacted bans on Russian athletes, the NHL supported the players, pointing to the "extremely difficult position" they had been placed in. The league said then that Russian players compete "on behalf of their NHL Clubs, and not on behalf of Russia."
Ovechkin has not appeared in United Russia campaign marketing in the past, Kazakov said.
At Thursday's Capitals media day event, coach Spencer Carbery said he didn't expect the criticism of Ovechkin to affect his place with the team.
"I know him as good as anybody inside this organization, and I know what he's all about," Carbery said. "I haven't seen the video or whatever, but I know this: He's done an amazing job in my time here. I love him, I love his family, and he's a big part of our team. Him being our captain, the relationship I have with him as a coach here, it doesn't affect that."
Ovechkin signed what is expected to be his final contract with the team -- a one-year, $4.25 million deal -- on July 2, more than two months before the ad appeared on Russian television.
The Moscow-born forward, who in April 2025 eclipsed Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record, has been a consistent if not outspoken supporter of the Russian president throughout his career. His Instagram profile picture features himself and Putin, and he has participated in two notable social media campaigns supporting Putin's agenda. "Putin Team," in 2017, attempted to invigorate the president's approval among the country's youth. And in 2014, during Russia's initial invasion of eastern Ukraine, Ovechkin posted an Instagram photo of himself holding a sign reading "#SAVE CHILDREN FROM FASCISM." The slogan echoed Kremlin messaging that the invasion was a means of protecting Ukrainian civilians. Ovechkin later said he was not trying to make a political statement.
Throughout Ovechkin's career, Capitals officials and people close to Ovechkin have suggested in media interviews that he was under pressure from the Kremlin to support the president and could not safely criticize Putin with his family living in Russia.
In 2022, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, the then-Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said Russian players were trying to navigate "what they can say, what they can't say," and "the repercussions that could happen back home." Of Ovechkin, he said: "He gets pressure from all sides -- from North America, from Russia, from family."
"It's a cop-out," said Slava Malamud, a Russian-born former Sport-Express hockey reporter who said the Capitals revoked his press credential in 2014 after he criticized Ovechkin's "Save Children from Fascism" post.
"All of these excuses presuppose the existence of an alternative Ovechkin no one has ever seen, one who is meekly doing what a brutal dictator tells him to do," Malamud told ESPN. "That is not an Ovechkin we have ever seen. We see a man who is proud of his president, who is standing next to war criminals.
"I don't think it's a coincidence after signing his last contract that he comes out with his unambiguous support for the war."
Pressed to comment on the invasion in 2022, Ovechkin expressed hope for peace but stopped short of condemning the decision to invade a peaceful neighbor.
"Please, no more war," Ovechkin said in 2022. "It doesn't matter who is in the war -- Russia, Ukraine, different countries. ... We have to live in peace."
Few Russian athletes, including dozens who play in the NHL, have publicly criticized the regime. Then-New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin, born in Korkino, Russia, took the strongest anti-Putin stance among Russian NHL players in 2022, condemning political corruption in the country. Putin, he said, no longer knew the difference between right and wrong.
Getting Ovechkin's implied support, standing behind Lavrov, allows the Kremlin to downplay its banishment from the world cultural stage, Kazakov said.
"Ovechkin's persona and his achievements have been particularly important for the Kremlin in this Ukraine war period," Kazakov said. "There's this idea to make an appeal for Russia's soft power, going back to the feeling of a previous era when they hosted the Olympics and the World Cup, when their cultural figures have been prominent and beloved by people from around the world."