Russian TV presenter who said Ukrainian children should have been 'drowned' is suspended

Russian state-controlled TV channel RT has suspended presenter Anton Krasovsky after he suggested on air that Ukrainian children in the 1980s who saw Russian forces as occupiers should have been "drowned."

On Monday RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan denounced Krasovsky's comments in a Telegram post, saying they were "wild and disgusting."

"For now, I'm stopping our collaboration, as neither I nor the rest of the RT team can afford to even think that any of us are capable of sharing such wild ideas," Simonyan said.

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Krasovsky is a commentator who hosts his own show on RT.

He made the comments in a broadcast last Thursday after author Sergei Lukyanenko said that, on a visit to Ukraine in the 1980s, children told him: "Ukraine is occupied by Muscovites."

Krasovsky replied: "These children should have been drowned in the Tysyna [river]."

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took to Twitter to call for a worldwide ban on RT, saying the comments amounted to "aggressive genocide incitement."

"Governments which still have not banned RT must watch this excerpt. This is what you side with if you allow RT to operate in your countries," Kuleba said, sharing a clip from the RT broadcast.

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Krasovsky later apologised for his comments on Telegram, saying he "was really embarrassed" and "did not see the line."

"It happens like this: You are on the air, you get carried away," the anchor said.

"I apologise to everyone who was stunned by this. I apologise to Margarita, to everyone to whom this seemed wild, unthinkable and insurmountable. I hope you will forgive me," Krasovsky added.

In other news, US and other Western officials have continue to dismissed Moscow's claims that Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb as a Russian false flag operation.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday about the Kremlin claims that Ukraine was preparing to deploy a radioactive device.

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"The leaders discussed recent diplomatic engagements with Russia, Russia's false accusation that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own soil, and the need for Russia to de-escalate," a Pentagon spokesman said.

Austin spoke on Sunday with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who accused Ukrainians of planning to use a so-called dirty bomb - a weapon that combines conventional explosives and uranium.

That claim, which the Kremlin has amplified in recent days, has been strongly refuted by the US, Ukraine and the United Kingdom as a false flag operation, or an intentional misrepresentation by Russia to escalate the war.