Ukraine has imposed sanctions on more than 100 Russian actors, musicians, and television personalities who Kyiv says are "propagandists of death" for supporting the war in Ukraine.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that the Russians had been blacklisted for supporting Russia's armed aggression in Ukraine.
"A total of 119 Russian 'propagandists of death' on the long list of sanctions.... Why? Direct or indirect calls to kill, capture, steal in Ukraine...," Podolyak said on Twitter.
The decree imposing the sanctions was signed by Zelenskiy and published on the president's website.
The list includes artist Yevgeny Petrosyan, heads of the Russian state-run news agency Rossia Segodnya Margarita Simonyan and Dmitry Kiselyov, TV presenter Zhanna Badoyeva, actors Dmitry Dyuzhev, Dmitry Kharatyan, Mikhail Galustyan, and singer Lolita Milyavskaya.
Also added to the sanctions list were director Nikita Mikhalkov and a long list of musicians, including Sergei Lazarev, Aleksandr Panayotov, and Larisa Dolina. At least one athlete, soccer player Anatoly Timoshchuk, was also blacklisted.
The sanctions block any assets the individuals hold in Ukraine and restrict business transactions. It also bans them from the territory of Ukraine and from obtaining visas among other measures.
Zelenskiy also signed a decree suspending the citizenship of 13 priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), one of two Orthodox bodies in Ukraine following a schism that in 2019 resulted in the establishment of one with independence from the Russian church.
The decree was issued on December 28 and was not made public because it contains personal information, reported LB.ua, citing sources.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) recently conducted searches at cathedrals and monasteries of the UOC-MP throughout Ukraine. The searches revealed "a large number of anti-Ukrainian materials," as well as documents confirming the presence of Russian citizens among the leadership of diocesan structures..