3 BBC journalists barred from entering Ukraine

MOSCOW — Ukraine has barred a few dozen reporters, including three BBC journalists, from entering the country as an unspecified security threat.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko late on Wednesday signed a sanctions list barring nearly 300 individuals from entering Ukraine.

The decree which was published on the president’s website said the three BBC journalists — two Britons and one Russian — and other reporters and media executives presented an unspecified “threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty or territorial integrity.”

It did not specify why the BBC was singled out but a spokesman for the presidential administration said late Wednesday night that the Ukrainian Security Service would give an explanation on Thursday.

Ukraine has barred entry to Russian journalists in the past, accusing them of inciting unrest in the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

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