‘They Are Lying to You’: A Russian Journalist Just Stormed a Live Broadcast to Protest the War

The woman ran out behind the news presenter on the evening news on Russia’s Pervy Kanal and raised a hand-drawn sign featuring Russian and Ukrainian flags and text, in both English and Russian, which read: “No war. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. Here they’re lying to you. Russians against war.”

A Russian state television employee just interrupted the evening newscast to protest the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The incident marks an unusually dramatic incident of protest at one of Russia’s state-run media outlets, which have significantly downplayed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and referred to the attack as only a “special military operation.” As a result, many Russians simply do not believe that their country has actually launched a massive invasion of Ukraine in a war that has caused thousands of deaths.

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Shortly after the incident, a second video appeared in social media accounts purporting to be a pre-recorded, first-person account of the protester explaining herself.

The protester was identified by Russian state-controlled media, as well as by independent outlet Meduza, as an editor for Pervy Kanal named Marina Ovsiannikova. She blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching a war of aggression and called for Russians to rise up in protest.

“What’s happening in Ukraine is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor country,” the woman identified as Ovsiannikova said. The responsibility for this aggression belongs to “only one person—and that person is Vladimir Putin.”