KYIV -- The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has said that its decision not to allow a Russian citizen, a leader of the Don Cossacks, to enter Ukraine was legitimate, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
The SBU's press service said the decision was made to prevent the creation of an illegal parliamentary formation on Ukrainian territory.
The incident took place on October 4 when an ataman of the Don Cossacks, Viktor Demyanenko, was refused entry into Ukraine.
Demyanenko was heading to Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast to meet with the Don Cossacks who live there.
A spokesman for the so-called Great Don Cossacks Army, Vladimir Voronin, said that Demyanenko intended to hand honorary certificates of the army to Cossacks living in Ukraine.
The Don Cossacks historically considered themselves border guards of the Russian empire.