Putin propagandist who called for Ukrainian children to be drowned is ‘seriously ill’ in hospital ‘after being poisoned’

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, a former director of broadcasting at state TV channel RT, reported that he was recovering in hospital after losing consciousness.

But a source at the Defense Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine [HUR] claimed that he “continues to decline” and claimed that his most recent posts were probably “not written by the propagandist himself.”

Krasovsky caused outrage in October 2022 with his genocidal tirade, saying that Ukrainian children who saw Russians as occupiers under the Soviet Union should have been “thrown into the Tysyna River with a strong current.”

The pro-war star presenter was given a five-year prison sentence in absentia by a court in Ukraine in February over the comments. Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said at the time that it was working to “bring the perpetrator to justice.”

Krasovsky was separately criticized after calling for Ukrainian children to be burned to death in huts in the Carpathians. “Shove them straight into their huts and burn them,” he said.

He then apologized for the comments that caused outrage in Ukraine and around the world, highlighting the barbarity of Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine.

Krasovsky's savage tirade about drowning Ukrainian children horrified even his own leaders. 'Drown those children, drown them in the Tysyna [River],' he said. “You throw them into the river with a strong undertow… Push them straight into their huts and burn them.”

Despite the apology, Krasovsky was removed from his executive role at Russian state television and sanctioned by the European Union for his choice of words.

On Christmas Eve, he last posted on the Telegram messenger network: “People have been asking if I'm still alive, if I'm okay. Well what can I say?

'My stomach turned sharply, I started to feel nauseous and then passed out. I was taken to the clinic. I'm slowly coming to my senses.'

But the Kiev Post newspaper, citing a Ukrainian intelligence source, reported that Krasovsky's condition “continues to deteriorate” and that it is unlikely he wrote the messages himself.

The source did not provide further details.

Head of RT Margarita Simonyan did not deny that Krasovsky was poisoned, but said that she had spoken to him and that everything would be fine with him – with God's help.

Simonyan, Putin's highest-paid propagandist, said: 'Krasovsky just called me. Comes to your senses. And this is really Krasovsky, and not “someone instead of him”, like the Kiev people [claimed].

'Everything will be fine – with God's help, as always.'

Krasovsky made a number of inflammatory claims during the war.

After a Russian missile attack in Vinnytsia killed 23 people in July 2022, he declared: “Vinnytsia is not enough.” He hoped for a “final solution – a real, military solution.”

He also defended the beheading of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

To TV protester Marina Ovsyannikova – a former editor who came across a state television news bulletin with an anti-war message, the foul-mouthed propagandist said: “That b***h should get 10 years in prison.”

And he called Ukrainians 'animals' in broadcasts.

About Ukrainian children, he later said: “Listen, I feel really uncomfortable if I somehow miss that red line [in what I said] about the children.

'It sometimes happens that you are taken along during the broadcast and cannot stop. My apologies to anyone who is baffled by this.

'I beg Margarita [Simonyan] to forgive me.

“And I apologize to anyone who saw this as wild and unthinkable. I hope you can forgive me.'

Simonyan – who had previously praised Krasovsky warmly – said his TV comments were “savage and disgusting”.

“Perhaps Anton himself would explain it by saying what temporary madness caused it, and how it slipped off his tongue.”

She said: 'It's hard to believe that Krasovsky really believes children should be drowned.

“From now on, I suspend our cooperation, because neither myself nor the rest of the RT team can allow even the slightest thought that any of us could share such nonsense.”

A younger Krasovsky once called for challenging prejudices in an op-ed article written for The Guardian in 2013.

Krasovsky wrote: “I came out because gays in Russia are suffering – it's time for courage,” and said he opposed violent, prejudicial attacks on a long-marginalized group in Russia.

Krasovsky's comments caused widespread outrage, with RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan suspending him and demanding he “explain himself.”

Krasovsky apologized for the comments but lost his job at RT, formerly Russia Today

'How did it come to be that today in Russia a good gay man is a dead gay man? [Russian] The deputies are concerned that I am scum by the fact that I was born, and it was criminal negligence not to have that noted on my birth certificate,” he wrote.

'What seemed like a bad dream a few years ago has now become reality. And it is terrifying to imagine what could happen tomorrow,” he wrote.