What role does propaganda play in shaping political action in authoritarian context? Drawing on the framework of value-instantiating beliefs, we examine how propaganda alters the motivational meaning of events by linking them to basic human values, using the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a case study. We surveyed 973 Russian citizens in August 2022 to assess how they construed the war in Ukraine in terms of consequences for their core values such as security, benevolence, and achievement. We show that individuals systematically vary in meanings they assign to the war. Cluster analysis revealed two dominant profiles of value construals, differentiated by perceived consequences for conservation values. The construal profiles explained substantial variance in behavioral intentions, beyond right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and national identity. Mediation analyses confirmed that the value construals account for substantial proportion of the relationship between media exposure and intentions for political action. Our findings offer a novel cognitive-motivational mechanism for modelling the effects of propaganda on behavior, suggesting the power lies not only in persuasion or fear, but in shaping the people's perceptions of moral affordances and threats.