The Kremlin says Ukraine's decision to sanction many media representatives is "totally unacceptable."
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 17 that Moscow strongly condemned the move, saying "it does not correspond with the principles of freedom."
On September 16, Ukraine barred a few dozen reporters, including three BBC journalists, from entering the country as an unspecified security threat.
The media representatives were part of a sanctions list signed by President Petro Poroshenko barring nearly 400 individuals from entering Ukraine, including BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg and producer Emma Wells, both British, and Russian cameraman Anton Chicherov.
Also on the list of 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 militant group, and two reporters for Russian news agencies in South Africa and Turkey with no clear links to Ukraine.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that it was "dismayed" by Poroshenko's actions.
"While the government may not like or agree with the coverage, labeling journalists a potential threat to national security is not an appropriate response," said the committee's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Nina Ognianova.
