A Russian TV news presenter who spoke out about the country’s military invasion in Ukraine has said she has no intention of going to Crimea despite being urged to by her channel’s bosses.

Abby Martin, an anchor on the Kremlin-funded broadcaster Russia Today, said president Vladimir Putin was ‘wrong’ to send troops to Crimea live on air.

She said she would not ‘sit here and apologise or defend military aggression’, before saying her ‘heart went out’ to people in Ukraine who she described as ‘the real losers here’.

Hi @Josiensor, thanks for your article. But I am not going to Crimea despite the statement RT has made. Please update accordingly. — Abby Martin (@AbbyMartin) March 4, 2014

Russia Today responded by saying: ‘Ms Martin also noted she does not possess a deep knowledge of reality of the situation in Crimea. We’ll be sending her there to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story.’




But Ms Martin, 29, a host on the US version of the channel, made her comments at the end of her show Breaking The Set. She later wrote on Twitter: ‘I am not going to Crimea.’