In this example the RT News (Russia Today) app appears on the smartphone. (file)
Ukraine branded Russian state-controlled RT media outlets as an instigator of the genocide on Sunday after a presenter said Ukrainian children who viewed Russians as occupiers under the Soviet Union should have been drowned.
In a show that aired last week, RT presenter Anton Krasovsky said that children who criticize Russia “should be thrown straight into a river with a strong current”.
Mr. Krasovsky – a pro-war commentator on Russian TV that has been sanctioned by the European Union – was responding to an account by Russian science fiction author Sergei Lukyanenko about how, when he first visited Ukraine in the 1980s , then the children told them that they would live a better life were it not for Moscow to occupy their country.
“He should have drowned in the Tysna (river),” said Mr. Krasovsky in response. “Just drown those kids, drown them.” Alternatively, he said, they could be pushed into huts and burnt.
In a short segment of the interview, which was shared on social media, Mr Krasovsky also laughed at reports that Russian soldiers raped elderly Ukrainian women during the invasion.
“Governments that still haven’t banned RT should watch this excerpt,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said in a tweet attached to a clip of the interview.
Mr. Culeba said, “Aggressive genocide (we will put this person on trial for this), which has nothing to do with freedom of expression. Ban RT worldwide.”
Russian state television, heavily controlled by the Kremlin, has been a vocal cheerleader of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Presenters have routinely dismissed reports of Russian war crimes and many have used airtime from Russian President Vladimir Putin to take an even more aggressive approach to the invasion.
The Kremlin denies that its forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)