Noting that she had a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother who had never been enemies, she said the necklace she was wearing — in the colors of the Russian and Ukrainian flags — was a symbol for the need for Moscow to stop “this fratricidal war.”
“Unfortunately, for the last few years I have worked at Channel One and worked on Kremlin propaganda,” she said. “I am very ashamed for this right now — ashamed that I let people tell lies from the TV screen, ashamed that I allowed the Russian people to be zombified.”
Referring to Russia’s 2014 invasion of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and then eastern territories in Ukraine, as well as the Kremlin’s poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020, Ovsyannikova said, “We just silently watched this inhuman regime.”
“Now the whole world has turned away from us,” she said, “and the next 10 generations of our descendants won’t wash off the shame of this fratricidal war.”
“We are Russian people who think, who are smart. It’s only in our power to stop all this madness,” she concluded. “Go to protests. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t imprison us all.”
