Russian Presenter Calls For Drowning Of Ukrainian Children; Global Ban To State-Controlled RT Urged

Ukraine is calling for the worldwide boycott of Russian state-controlled broadcast channel RT after comments from one of their presenters on Sunday calling for Ukrainian children to be drowned if they refuse to comply with the Kremlin’s wishes.

Anton Krasovsky, a pro-war commentator on the channel, was speaking with science fiction author Sergei Lukyanenko about his trip to Ukraine in 1980 where the children reportedly told him that they would rather not have Moscow occupying their homeland when Krasovsky made the inflammatory comments, according to the Daily Beast.

“They should have been drowned in the Tysyna [river],” he said. “Just drown those children, drown them.”

The comments were shocking even in the context of the war propaganda machine of the Kremlin, with RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan suspending Krasovsky for his comments hours after the telecast, calling the remarks “disgusting,” Reuters reported.

“For the children of Ukraine, as well as the children of Donbas, and all other children, I wish that all this ends as soon as possible, and they can live and study in peace again – in the language they consider native,” Simonyan added in her statements.

During the conversation, Krasovsky also mocked the idea of elderly Ukrainian women getting raped by Russian soldiers, and made statements insinuating the destruction of Ukraine and the genocide of its people.

Krasovsky has apologized online for his statements during the program, saying that “you’re on air, you get carried away, and you can’t stop,” and asking “for the forgiveness of everyone who was stunned by this.”

After the clip had gone viral on social media, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted a statement calling for the global boycott of the channel due to the inflammatory statements of Krasovsky. “Governments which have still not banned RT must watch this excerpt,” Kuleba said. “Aggressive genocide incitement (we will put this person on trial for it), which has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide.”