Ukraine bans two BBC journalists

After the BBC complained Thursday, Poroshenko’s office announced that the broadcaster’s three-person team, including its Moscow-based correspondent and producer, would be removed from the list of those who are banned.

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The decree, published on the presidential website, says those listed are banned for being “actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.

The European Union and the United States have both supported Ukraine by imposing financial sanctions on Russia since a pro-Russian president was toppled in Kiev past year and Moscow responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

“They never consulted with media experts – at least none of my colleagues ever received any requests from the Foreign Ministry”, she said, adding that she and other media experts were in the dark on “what kind of criteria they follow” in declaring a journalist “anti-Ukrainian”.

Ukraine redoubled its long-shot bid Wednesday to see Russian Federation stripped of its veto power on the UN Security Council when the global body’s General Assembly meets in the coming weeks.

On September 16, Poroshenko extended Ukraine’s sanctions against individuals and legal entities from Russia and several other countries over their stance on the annexation of Crimea and pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine’s Donbass region.

“As [the] Ukrainian government continues to review the list we encourage it to keep in mind the importance of unfettered and factual journalism in a democratic society,” Spokesperson John Kirby said in a daily briefing. The new list expands sanctions adopted earlier this month and includes more than 400 people and 90 organisations.

The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists said it also “deplores” Ukraine’s pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko’s decision and questioned his committment to media rights.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the move as “totally unacceptable”.

“Introducing over-broad restrictions that curb free movement of journalists is not the way to ensure security”, the OSCE’s Dunja Mijatovic said in a statement.

Ukraine faced widespread condemnation Thursday for blacklisting dozens of foreign reporters as it expanded sanctions against Russian Federation for its actions in the war-torn former Soviet state.

A close examination of direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine, and of the context within which the intervention is taking place, makes clear that the Russian government is directly coordinating and leading the fight to destabilize and divide Ukraine.