The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported the suspicion of Margarita Simonyan, head of the propaganda TV channel Russia Today, who called for the killing of Ukrainian children.
The press service of SBU reported this on April 1.
According to the investigation, she was one of the first to support the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and the war crimes of the Russian occupiers.
Among the newly documented crimes of the accused are Simonyanʼs public calls for the mass murder of Ukrainian children in December 2023.
In addition, the Russian propagandist repeatedly campaigned for the continuation of attacks on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine.
Simonyan regularly spreads Kremlin narratives in the form of "authorʼs" posts on his own Telegram channel and on Russian TV channels. First of all, we are talking about her participation in the television program of another Russian propagandist Volodymyr Solovyov.
Based on the collected evidence, the investigators of the Security Service informed Simonyan of a new suspicion under four articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- h. 2 Art. 442 (genocide);
- Part 2 of Art. 110 (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine);
- Art. 436 (war propaganda);
- h. 3 Art. 436-2 (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).
In total, she faces imprisonment for a term of up to ten years with confiscation of property.
In March 2023, Simonyan was already reported on suspicion of encroaching on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.