- Krasovsky sparked outrage after calling for the deaths of Ukrainian children
- He has since been taken ill in hospital, sources saying his condition is worsening
A leading Putin propagandist who called for Ukrainian children to be drowned is ‘seriously ill’ after being poisoned, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.
Anton Krasovsky, 48, former director of broadcasting on the state TV channel RT, posted that he was recovering in hospital after losing consciousness.
But a source in the Defence Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine [HUR] alleged he ‘continues to deteriorate’ and claimed his most recent messages were likely ‘not written by the propagandist himself’.
Krasovsky caused revulsion in October 2022 with his genocidal diatribe, saying Ukrainian children who saw Russians as occupiers under the Soviet Union should have been ‘thrown in the Tysyna River with a strong current’.
The pro-war star presenter was given a five-year jail term in absentia by a court in Ukraine back in February over the comments. Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said at the time it was working to ‘bring the culprit to justice’.
Krasovsky separately faced criticism after he called for burning Ukrainian children to death in huts in the Carpathian Mountains. ‘Shove them right into their huts and burn them,’ he said.
He subsequently apologised for the comments which caused outrage in Ukraine and around the world, and were seen as highlighting the barbarity of Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine.
Despite the apologies, Krasovsky was relieved of his executive role at Russian state TV and sanctioned by the European Union over his choice of words.
He last posted on the Telegram messenger network on Christmas Eve: ‘People have been asking if I’m alive, if everything is ok. Well, what can I say?
‘My stomach twisted sharply, I started to feel sick, then fainted. I was taken to the clinic. I am gradually coming to my senses.’
But the Kyiv Post newspaper citing a Ukrainian intelligence source reported Krasovsky’s condition ‘continues to deteriorate’ and that he is unlikely to have written the posts himself.
The source gave no further details.
Head of RT Margarita Simonyan did not deny Krasovsky had been poisoned but said she had spoken to him and he would be ‘fine – with God’s help’.
Simonyan, Putin’s most highly paid propagandist, said: ‘Krasovsky just called me. Comes to his senses. And this is really Krasovsky, and not “someone instead of him”, as the Kyiv people [claimed].
‘Everything will be fine – with God’s help, as always.’
Krasovsky has made a number of incendiary claims during the war.
After 23 died in a Russian missile strike in Vinnytsia in July 2022, he declared: ‘Vinnytsia is not enough.’ He hoped for a ‘final solution – a real, military one.’
He also defended the beheading of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
On TV protester Marina Ovsyannikova – a former editor who walked onto a state television news bulletin with an anti-war message, the foul-mouthed propagandist said: ‘The b***h should be jailed for ten years.’
And he referred to Ukrainians as ‘animals’ in broadcasts.
Regarding Ukraine children he later said: ‘Listen, I feel truly uneasy about somehow missing that red line [in what I said] about the children.
‘Sometimes it happens that you get taken away while on air and you cannot stop. I apologise to everyone who got stunned by this.
‘I beg Margarita [Simonyan] to pardon me.
‘And I apologise to all those who saw this as wild and unthinkable. I hope you can forgive me.’
Simonyan – who had earlier warmly praised Krasovsky – said his TV comments were ‘savage and disgusting’.
‘Perhaps Anton would explain himself by saying what temporary insanity it was caused by, and how it slipped off his tongue.’
She said: ‘It is hard to believe Krasovsky truly thinks children should be drowned.
‘As of now I am suspending our cooperation, because neither myself, nor the rest of the RT team can allow even a hint of thought that any of us can share such nonsense.’
A younger Krasovsky once called for a challenge to prejudicial views in an opinion article penned for The Guardian in 2013.
Writing ‘I came out because gay people in Russia are suffering – it’s time for courage’, Krasovsky said he opposed violent prejudicial attacks on a long-marginalised group in Russia.
‘How did it come about that today in Russia a good gay person is a dead gay person?.… As far as the [Russian] deputies are concerned I am scum by the fact of my birth, and it was criminal negligence not to have made a note of that in my birth certificate,’ he wrote.
‘What seemed like a bad dream only a couple of years ago has now become reality. And it is terrifying to imagine what could happen tomorrow,’ he wrote.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
