Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised a protester who interrupted Russia's state TV Channel One to denounce the country's military activities. 

The protester, named as Channel One employee Marina Ovsyannikova, held up a sign with phrases in Russian and English saying "No war. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here." After several seconds, the channel switched to a news report. 

In a prerecorded video posted online, a woman who appeared to be Ovsyannikova said she was "ashamed" to have worked for years "spreading Kremlin propaganda." 

"My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian. They were never enemies,” she continued. "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. We the Russians are wise and proud, it is up to us to stop this madness. Come out to protest, do not be afraid, they cannot put all of us in jail."

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That was echoed by Zelenskyy, who expressed his gratitude to "Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth, to those who fight disinformation and tell the truth, real facts to their friends and loved ones, and personally to that young woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war, to those who are not afraid to protest."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the protest as "hooliganism", saying "The channel and those who are supposed to will get to the bottom of this." 

Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group, said Ovsyannikova had been arrested and taken to a Moscow police station. The TASS news agency, citing a law enforcement source, said she may face charges under a law against discrediting the armed forces.

The law, passed on March 4, makes public actions aimed at discrediting Russia's army illegal and bans 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 offense carries a jail term of up to 15 years.