Russia Today anchor accused of inciting genocide after she said Ukrainian children should have been drowned | World news

Russia Today was accused of inciting genocide after the host said that Ukrainian children who saw Moscow’s forces as occupiers under the Soviet Union should be drowned.

The editor-in-chief of the Russian state-run news channel Margarita Simanyan said that anchor Anton Krasovsky was removed from his post because of his “disgusting comments”.

Mrs. Simanyan did not add anyone Russia Today (RT) shared the views of Mr. Krasowski.

In his broadcast last week, Mr Krasovsky said that children who criticize Russia should have been “thrown straight into the river with a strong current”.

Mr. Krasovsky is a pro-war commentator for Russian television who has been sanctioned by the European Union.

He was responding to a story by Russian science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko about how, when he first visited Ukraine in the 1980s, children told him that they would live better if their country was not occupied by Moscow.

“They should have been drowned in Tisin,” answered Mr. Krasovsky. “Just drown these children, drown them.” Alternatively, he said, they could be stuffed into huts and burned.

In a short segment of the interview on social media, Mr. Krasovsky also laughed off reports that Russian soldiers raped elderly Ukrainian women during the invasion.

“Governments that have not yet banned RT should watch this excerpt,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba wrote on Twitter, referring to a fragment of the interview.

“Aggressive incitement to genocide (we will try this man) that has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide,” Kuleba added.

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Russian state television, heavily controlled by the Kremlin, actively supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The hosts regularly dismissed reports of Russian war crimes, and many used airtime to urge President Vladimir Putin to take an even more aggressive approach to the invasion.

The Kremlin denies that its troops committed war crimes in Ukraine.

In a statement on the TV channel’s website, Ms. Simanyan added: “I wish for the children of Ukraine, as well as the children of Donbass and all other children, that all this will end as soon as possible, and they can live and study in peace again – in the language they consider to be their own.” “.