Russian singers, actors placed on wanted list by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU)

They all have been included in a special register

© ITAR-TASS

Alexey Panin

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) is putting on a wanted list all actors and musicians who come to areas of Donbass (Donetsk and Lugansk regions) not controlled by Kiev, Vasily Vovk, head of the SBU main investigation department, said Sunday on 112 TV channel.

"They all have been included in a special register and put on a wanted list," Vovk said when asked what actions the SBU is taking against Russian artists who perform in Donbass.

Russian singer Yulia Chicherina in early January visited the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk with a charity concert. Singer Iosif Kobzon, actors Mikhail Porechenkov, Ivan Okhlobystin and Alexey Panin, as well as other actors and performers, have visited the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics.

Fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev's military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway southeastern territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics, have killed over 4,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee Ukraine's southeast.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine.

Numerous violations of the ceasefire, which took effect the same day, have been reported since.

A "day of silence" in eastern Ukraine began at 09:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on December 9. It is seen as another attempt by both parties to the intra-Ukrainian conflict to put an end to hostilities.