An American news anchor for a Russian-owned TV station resigned during a broadcast in protest of Russia's actions in the Ukraine.
Liz Wahl, who was an anchor for Russia Today in Washington, announced her resignation on air on Wednesday. Wahl is the second RT news anchor to criticize the Russian government's interference in Ukraine. But Wahl is the first to resign from the Russian funded station, The Washington Post reported.
"As a reporter on this network, I face many ethical and moral challenges, especially me personally, coming from a family whose grandparents...came here as refugees during the Hungarian revolution, ironically to escape the Soviet forces."
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea, claiming Ukrainian citizens that are ethnically Russian need protection. The troops were sent after a democratic government was implemented, following the ousting of the Russian-supported fugitive president Victor Yanukovych.
Wahl said she cannot work for a station that glosses over Putin's actions, which Hillary Clinton earlier this week said are similar to what Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany.
"I have family on the opposite side, on my mother's side, that see the daily grind of poverty. And I'm very lucky to have grown up here in the United States. I'm the daughter of a [U.S.] veteran," Wahl said, according to The Washington Post.
"My partner is a physician at a military base, where he sees every day the firsthand accounts of the ultimate prices that people pay for this country. And that is why personally I cannot be part of [a] network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin.
"I'm proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth and that is why, after this newscast, I'm resigning," Wahl said.
RT has called supporters of Ukraine's democratic government "radicals" and the Russian military presence as "self-defense forces." The station also rarely airs anchors who offer opposing views to the Russian government, The Washington Post reported.
