Steven Seagal banned from Ukraine after being branded national security threat

Steven Seagal has joined fellow actor Gérard Depardieu on a blacklist of cultural figures barred from entering Ukraine.

The Under Siege star, 65, whose grandmother was from Vladivostok, has been branded a national security threat after he was granted Russian citizenship last year and voiced support for Russia’s seizure of Crimea.

Ukraine’s security service said it had banned him from the country for five years, according to news site Apostrophe, which published a letter from the service saying he had “committed socially dangerous actions … that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine’s security”.