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Marina Ovsyannikova defiantly repeated her protest and said she
would not retract her words.
"What's going on here is absurd," Ovsyannikova told the court.
"War is horror, blood and shame."
Ovsyannikova gained international attention in March after
bursting into a studio of Russian state TV, her then employer,
to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin. At the
time she was fined for flouting protest laws.
She is now being tried over subsequent social media posts in
which she wrote that those responsible for Russia's actions in
Ukraine would find themselves in the dock before an
international tribunal.
She faces up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed
forces under a law passed in March, soon after President
Vladimir Putin launched what he calls his "special military
operation" against Ukraine.
Addressing the court, Ovsyannikova said she did not understand
why she was there and what she was being judged for.
"Your accusations are like accusing me of spreading monkeypox,"
she said. "The purpose of the trial is to intimidate all the
people who oppose the war in the Russian Federation."
She described Russia as an aggressor country, saying: "The
beginning of this war is the biggest crime of our government."
A lawyer for Ovsyannikova said she had the right to speak out
under Article 29 of the Russian constitution which protects the
right to freedom of expression.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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