Ukraine Denies UK Politician Access To Country Over Security Concerns - Security Service

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2018) The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has banned Andrew Murray, the chief political adviser of UK Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, from visiting Ukraine for three years over security concerns, UK media reported, citing a source from the SBU.

The decision to introduce the ban was taken in June.

"It is extremely unusual for us to ban anyone from entering the country, especially a Briton ... It is not a step we take lightly and it means he is considered a potential threat to our national security," the source said, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

According to the source, Murray had been banned from visiting Ukraine as the SBU considered him as "being part of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's global propaganda network, peddling Russian lies, particularly about Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine.

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Murray has repeatedly voiced his support for the Russian engagement in the Ukrainian conflict settlement, for example, via promoting the launch of "Solidarity with the Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine" campaign in 2014, protesting against the West's backing of the Ukrainian pro-EU government that came to power back then.

Ukraine and Russia have been at odds since 2014, when the new government came to power in Kiev, with Kiev accusing Moscow of providing military support to the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics that proclaimed independence refusing to accept the new authorities. The reunification of the Crimean peninsula, a former Ukrainian territory, and Russia has also contributed to the escalation of tensions, as Kiev qualified this as annexation.