Ukraine called Russia Today, the state-controlled news broadcast service, an inciter of genocide on Sunday after a presenter said that Ukrainian children should be drowned for not supporting Russia, according to a Reuters report. 

Soon after the war-torn country made its objections clear, Margarita Simonyan, the channel’s editor-in-chief, said that the presenter had been suspended as a result of his “disgusting” comments and that his views were not a reflection of the opinions of those working at RT. The presenter has been identified as Anton Krasovsky. He is a pro-war commentator on Russian television. 

In a statement on the channel’s website, Simonyan released a statement which said, “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.”

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Last week, Krasovsky said on the air that Ukrainian children that criticise Russia should be “thrown straight into a river with a strong current”, according to the Reuters report. The presenter has previously been sanctioned by the European Union.

His comments were based on a conversation he was having with Russian science fiction author Sergei Lukyanenko who was narrating an incident about his time visiting Ukraine in the 1980s. According to him, children there had told him that they would be living better lives had Russia not been occupying the country. 

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“They should have been drowned in the Tysyna (river). Just drown those children, drown them,” Krasovsky said at the time. He also offered an alternate, stuffing children into huts and burning them.

In response to the clip, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter, “Governments which have still not banned RT must watch this excerpt.” He added a link to the interview in his tweet. “Aggressive
genocide incitement (we will put this person on trial for it), which
has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide,” he added.