"We took into consideration with attention and some concern yesterday's new sanctions by the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian president, and the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) against Russia," Schaefer said, adding that "much of what was done with respect to the media… is raising our questions in the sphere of freedom of the press and media."
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved the decision of the NSDC to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities. The expanded list includes 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities. In particular, Ukraine imposed sanctions on a number of Russian media. The country also banned access to social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Yandex and Mail.ru services. The decree took effect Wednesday, May 17.
