The journalist associated with NBC News Keir Simmons has been placed on the Ukrainian ‘Mirotvorets’ (Peacemaker) blacklist for alleged crimes against the country.
The government in Kiev has also announced it is investigating the British journalist after he filed a report from Crimea on Tuesday, the Russian TV network RT reported.
“Visiting the temporarily occupied Crimea from the territory of the Russian Federation is a violation of the legislation of Ukraine,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Wednesday.
Violators are subject to legal liability, such as being “banned from entering Ukraine for such actions,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Mirotvorets website has published a photo of Simmons and his personal details, accusing the reporter of “violating Ukraine’s sovereignty,” participating in Russian propaganda, and “attempted legalization of the occupation.”
Simmons traveled to the Crimean peninsula by train from Moscow, across the Kerch Bridge, which he described as having been “blown up in a strategic and symbolic blow” to Russia last October, but is “now fully restored.”
He then tuned in to an NBC newscast live from Sevastopol, claiming it was “the closest any US news crew has got to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in many, many years.”
Speaking with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Simmons expressed doubt about US officials’ hopes that Crimea would be “demilitarized” or taken by Ukrainian troops.
Simmons also insinuated that Russia has somehow intimidated local residents, even though they explicitly told him otherwise.
