An anti-war protester interrupted a Russian news broadcast on Monday, holding up a poster denouncing the war in Ukraine, which the Russian government calls a “special military operation” in the Donbass region aimed at “demilitarisation and denazification” in Ukraine.

Multiple media organizations and journalists posted video footage of the incident showing the woman holding a sign both in Russian and English that read “Stop the war. Don't trust the propaganda. They lie to you here” in front of Russia's Channel One news presenter Yekaterina Andreyeva.

The woman was named by OVD-Info, an independent protest-monitoring group, and by Pavel Chikov, the head of the Agora human rights group, as Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor working at Russia's Channel One.

In a video statement recorded before the incident a woman who appeared to be Ovsyannikova described herself as a Channel One employee and said she was ashamed to have worked for years spreading Kremlin propaganda. She said her father was Ukrainian, and her mother Russian.

“What is happening in Ukraine now is a crime, and Russia is the aggressor, and the responsibility for this aggression lies with just one person. This person is Vladimir Putin,” she said. “Now the whole world has turned away from us and the next 10 generations of our descendants will not wash away the shame of this fratricidal war.”

She urged Russians to take to the streets to protest the war: “Take to the streets. Don't be afraid of anything. They cannot put us all in prison.”

In a statement to Russian news agency RIA Novosti Channel One’s representatives said that it was investigating an “incident” with an “outsider” appearing in the broadcast frame.

According to Chikov, Ovsyannikova may be charged under a new Russian law passed earlier this month, aimed at making public actions aimed at “discrediting” Russia's army illegal and prohibiting the spread of fake news, or the “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” The offence carries a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles, or a prison term of up to 15 years if it led to “serious consequences.”

Cybersecurity Help’s statement on the critical situation in Ukraine

On February 24, people in many cities and towns across Ukraine woke up to the sounds of explosions and artillery fire, as the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of the country. Such actions are unacceptable, political ambitions of any man aren’t worth of blood, tears, and destruction of millions of lives. We give our full support to the Ukrainian people in these hard times. No more war! Слава Україні!