Actor AnnaLynne McCord defends viral Twitter poem directed at Putin

As Russian troops advanced into Ukraine and closer to the capitol on Friday, people took to social media to decry the unprovoked attack on the European democracy.

One video, in particular, shared by "90210" reboot star AnnaLynne McCord, briefly captured the internet's attention. McCord recorded a poem, dedicated to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin,” McCord begins. “I’m so sorry I was not your mother.”

She continues to say she wishes Putin had been loved as a child so he wouldn't violently be attempting to take over Ukraine.

"If I was your mother, the world would have been warm," she recites. "So much laughter and joy, and nothing would harm."

McCord goes on to say she "can’t imagine the stain, the soul-stealing pain, that the little boy you must have seen and believed."

As of Friday evening, the video had more than 27 million views.

People immediately latched onto the clip, which she later shared a full version of to Vimeo but appeared to have taken down by Friday evening.

Many decried her post as “tone-deaf“ and “cringe.” It also immediately drew comparisons to Gal Gadot’s “Imagine” singalong from the early days of pandemic quarantine, which was similarly criticized.

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McCord defended her video on Friday to Buzzfeed.

“I know how I could easily have moved in the direction of becoming a dictator myself,” McCord told the outlet. “If certain circumstances of my life were different, were I a little less bent toward healing and more toward vindication, I could have been a darkly powerful person.”

Buzzfeed reported that McCord said she feels for “children who grow into adults and become people who do historically horrifying things” because she personally understands “early life trauma.”

Social media commentators also drew attention to a similar poem McCord wrote about the death of George Floyd in May 2020.