Moscow has expanded the list of EU officials, heads of European private military companies, and politicians from certain EU member states banned from entering Russia.

The announcement came from the Russian foreign ministry, which said the retaliatory measure affected "the heads of individual European PMCs operating in various regions of the world, who for some reason do not cause allergies in Brussels EU officials."

The ministry also stressed that the response list was also replenished by representatives of law enforcement agencies, as well as representatives of legislative and executive authorities of a number of EU member states.

Moscow saw that those figures and bodies were "personally responsible for promoting anti-Russian policies and 'imposing' measures that infringe on the legitimate rights of Russian-speaking residents and the media," the ministry added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry informed the 27-nation block about this step by sending a relevant note to the EU Delegation in Russia.

EU deplores Russian move

The European Union said it regretted Moscow's decision to expand the list of representatives banned from entering Russian soil.

The EU issued a statement deploring the Russian decision to ban the European representatives from entry into Russia.

"This decision lacks any legal justification and transparency and will meet an appropriate response," the block asserted.

"With it, Russia continues to fuel a climate of tensions in Europe," the statement added.

The "climate of tensions in Europe" in question is the one caused by concerns over Ukraine, whom the West is accusing Russia of planning to invade.

Russia insists that it has no intention of attacking any country, seeing the Western accusations as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment close to Russia's borders.

Russia had talks with the US and NATO in Geneva over each other's security concerns, and Russia sees that its demands have been ignored.

Meanwhile, the United States is supplying Kyiv with arms and "lethal aids," a word adopted by the western media to whitewash the lethal weapons the United States and its western allies are delivering to Ukraine.

"Lethal aid" includes fighter jets, frigates, anti-tank missiles, munitions, anti-armor missiles, and various other weapons to be used against Russia.