MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov – Hristo Ivanovski is among the 388 individuals on the newest version of the Ukrainian sanctions list, which includes nearly 100 entities, the expansion of which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed off on Wednesday.
"I found myself on that list without any information from the Ukrainian embassy… Maybe it is because of my attitude toward Crimea," Ivanovski, a daily news editor and columnist at Macedonia’s Dnevnik, argued.
Ivanovski said he wrote extensively on the March 2014 referendum on the Black Sea peninsula, in which 96 percent of those who voted did so in favor of seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia, categorizing it as "the willingness of the Crimean people to be with their mother country."
"This is my attitude and I will defend it," he stressed.
Asked to comment on the asset freezes enacted alongside the year-long entry bans, Ivanovski wryly responded that "I do not have any assets in Ukraine."
A number of foreign media outlets and organizations, including the BBC, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, condemned Kiev’s move as a violation of media freedom.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko later said British, German and Spanish journalists have been removed from the list.
