A Russian TV presenter has said Ukrainian children should have been drowned and burnt, comments that have seen him suspended from his role at Russian state-controlled network RT.
Anton Krasovsky, in a show broadcast last week, said children who criticised Russia should have been "thrown straight into a river with a strong current", Reuters reported.
He responded to an account by Russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko, who recalled visiting Ukraine in the 1980s and speaking to children who said if it were not for Russian occupation they would have better lives.
"They should have been drowned in the Tysyna (river)," Krasovsky said.
"Just drown those children, drown them." Alternatively, he said, "they could be shoved into huts and burned".
Krasovsky, a pro-war commentator who has been sanctioned by the EU, also appeared to laugh at reports that Russian soldiers had raped older Ukrainian women during the invasion.
RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said the comments were "disgusting" and his views were not shared by others at the network.
He has since said he was "truly embarrassed that I somehow didn't see the boundary. About children. But it happens like this: you're in the middle of a broadcast, and you get carried away. And you can't stop…I hope you'll forgive me."
According to The Guardian, one Russian pundit, Sergei Markov, said the comments were so outrageous that Krasovsky must be working for western intelligence.
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