NTV reporter Aleksey Chebotaryov has been denied entry to Ukraine because he had “failed to state the purpose” of his visit, the Russian TV channel has said. “A third NTV correspondent has been denied entry to Ukraine,” it said in a statement.

Aleksandra Tonkikh and Sergey Savin, who are also NTV journalists, had earlier been denied entry to Ukraine. The entry ban for Tonkikh was caused by the fact that she had visited Crimea in 2016, while Savin failed to state the purpose of his visit.

During a ‘Normandy Four’ summit on December 9 in Paris, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Russian journalists to Ukraine to personally assess the situation in the country.

An entry ban for Russian reporters was in place in Ukraine for the past several years. Ukrainian border guards allowed a team from Russia’s Zvezda TV channel to enter the country on December 12, TASS reports.