The journalists include a former MP of Latvia’s opposition Harmony party who writes for Latvia’s Russian-language daily, Vesti Segodnya, plus three other journalists from the same newspaper.
Advertisement
“This is a shameful attack on media freedom”, BBC foreign editor Andrew Roy said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree imposing “personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)” on over 400 individuals and 90 entities.
It includes members of Russia’s parliament and senior rebel figures leading a separatist conflict in the east of Ukraine.
Presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko, however, said on Thursday that Poroshenko asked the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, which was responsible for drafting the list, to take off the names of the BBC staff.
Providing lethal weapons to the Ukrainian army is one of the most sensitive issues for Western governments, Russia having warned this would mark a serious escalation of the conflict and pose a threat to its security. It was unclear exactly what had triggered the ban.
“I have never been to Ukraine and don’t have any intention of traveling there in the near future”, Michael Rutz, a German journalist and author, told German news agency dpa. “We appreciate that the situation in eastern Ukraine is sensitive but preventing journalists from reporting from withing the country is not the solution and it’s undermining freedom of information”.
This summer, Ukraine ceased its gas purchases from Gazprom after Kiev and Moscow proved unable to reach an agreement on the price of deliveries for the third quarter, despite a Russian proposal that included a new discount.
Some 8,000 people have been killed in a pro-Russian rebellion launched in eastern Ukraine in April, 2014.
“We are dismayed by President Poroshenko’s actions, including a ban on dozens of international media covering Ukraine”, Nina Ognianova, Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator of the New York-based advocacy group, said in a statement.
Advertisement
The United States and the EU have also imposed sanctions against Russian companies and allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
