Fox News expert claims the only way to turn the tide in Ukraine is for US to 'start killing Russians'

Russia has responded by launching a criminal investigation into the retired US General for his comments

Retired US General Bob Scales is not fazed by the Russian investigation (YouTube )

“Start killing Russians” is the phrase a retired US general used on Fox Business News to describe America’s options to help “turn the tide” in eastern Ukraine, and one which Russia has not taken kindly to.

General Bob Scales told the channel last week that the situation in Ukraine is now “game, set, and match,” and that the only way the US can have an effect in the region is to “start killing Russians”.

“Killing so many Russians that even Putin’s media can’t hide the fact that Russians are returning to the mother land in body bags,” he added.

Russia has responded to the General’s comments by launching a criminal probe.

Russia Today reports that the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a case citing charges against the General of public calls for starting an aggressive war in the media, and of violating article 20 of the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights banning war propaganda and instigation of discrimination, hatred or violence.

His comments come after shortly after Fox News was forced to apologise when one of its ‘experts’, Steve Emerson, claimed that “non-Muslims simply don’t go to Birmingham”.

The city of Paris said it was planning to sue the network for claims made by another ‘expert’, Nolan Petersen, that the French capital housed Muslim-dominated no-go zones following the Charlie Hebdo shootings.

On Sunday General Scales appeared once more on Fox Business News, claiming he is “not concerned at all” about the investigation, quipping that it simply meant “my cruise to the Baltics is off”.

He called the investigation the “Russian version of the first amendment – five years in prison if you say something that makes Vladimir Putin very angry,” before claiming he didn’t know Russians watched Fox Business News.

During the segment with Fox Business News host Greta Van Susteren the channel overlaid its report with images of Putin riding a horse while topless.

The pair also made reference to Putin having gone “missing” and questioned the strength of the Russian leader. He added that Fox is far from Putin’s favourite network because “we’re trying to tell the truth about what’s going on in places like Ukraine and places like Iraq”.