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MOSCOW Ukraine on Tuesday put in place new sanctions blocking Russian media and online networks from operating in the country, including VKontakte, the nations most popular social network.

The decision, signed by President Petro Poroshenko, was announced in an updated sanctions list, which included the Russian search giant Yandex, social media sites like Odnoklassniki, and a number of Russian state and private television channels.

Ukraine, along with Western countries, have targeted Russia with sanctions because of Moscows annexation of Crimea in 2014 and material support for separatists in the countrys southeast, including with direct military means. Even before Tuesdays additions, the sanctions list totaled more than 400 Russian entities.

Some Ukrainian officials, particularly in the Interior Ministry, had called for a ban of VKontakte because it helped promote Russian propaganda.

According to data put out by the market research agency Kantar TNS for April 2017, VKontakte was the third most visited site in Ukraine following Google and YouTube.

Mail.ru, an email client also on the block list, was the fourth most popular site in the country, while Yandex, the Russian search engine, is the fifth most popular site.

Odnoklassniki, another popular social engine also on the sanctions list, was the ninth most visited site in the country.

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In new sanctions list, Ukraine blocks Russian social media sites - Washington Post