Ukraine expands list of sanctions against Russian Federation

The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores a decree signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the organization has announced.

Poroshenko blamed “illegal elections” in the eastern Ukraine for the sanctions, which are the second set levied by Kyiv since the fighting began.

But after Kyiv postponed the polls due to security and monitoring concerns, pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk said the would hold their own ballot on October 18, a week before the rest of the country.

A number of foreign journalists – including some from the BBC – are also on the list.

The neighbouring Luhansk rebel region wants to stage elections on 1 November.

BBC Foreign Editor Andrew Roy said in a Wednesday statement that the sanctions are “a shameful attack on media freedom”.

The journalists and bloggers were among 388 people named as representing an “actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine“, according to news reports. Though Russian reporters banned by this measure will likely ignore it since they’re going into the rebel-held east anyhow, the BBC and Germany’s Die Zeit will be losing their on the ground reporters from the move.

Also on the list of the banned journalists are Antonio Pampliega and Angel Sastre, two Spanish reporters who disappeared in Syria in July and are believed to have been kidnapped by the Islamic State group, and two reporters for Russian news agencies in South Africa and Turkey with no clear links to Ukraine. The original list was never published and specific reasons for inclusion on either of the lists were not made public.

Kyiv and Western governments accuse Moscow of backing the separatists in their conflict with Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014 – a charge the Kremlin denies despite significant evidence of such support.