MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Ukraine’s authorities pursue policy in regard to Russia’s mass media that fails to comply with principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russia’s envoy to the European security agency Alexander Lukashevich said.

The Russian diplomat noted that Kiev has recently introduced another ban on Russian TV channels in Ukraine, including non-political ones that specialize in cooking shows, cars, music and popular science. The blacklist includes Kukhnya TV, My Planet, Nauka 2.0, Shanson TV and Auto-Plus.

"It seems that this time Kiev authorities needed to protect their people from ‘illegal annexation’ of Ukrainian borscht [beetroot soup] or the aggression of Russian dumplings," Lukashevich told a meeting of the OSCE permanent council in Vienna on Thursday.

This issue on TV broadcasts is particularly acute amid the upcoming local elections in Donbass, he said. Kiev insists that this policy in regard to TV channels is in line with the OSCE standards and demands that the Ukrainian mass media participate in the election campaign in Donbass.

Ukraine’s National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting on Thursday called on the National Security Council to slap economic and other sanctions on 38 Russian individuals controlling TV channels in Russia and Donbass territories not controlled by Kiev.

The list includes almost all the Russian TV channels — Channel One, NTV, RBC, TV Center, Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik and others. The broadcasting companies in Crimea and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are also on the list.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday that Ukraine’s blacklist even includes Bober, a non-political TV channel focusing on home design, decorating ideas and renovation.