FRENCH ACTOR GERARD Depardieu has been banned from Ukraine for five years.

A spokesperson for the National Security Service of Ukraine said he was blacklisted at the request of the culture ministry but she would not give a reason.

Ukraine’s culture ministry previously identified Depardieu among other actor whose movies should be banned after they supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The 66-year-old actor has described Russia as a “great democracy”.

He told a film festival in the Latvian capital Riga last year, ”I love Russia and Ukraine, which is part of Russia”.

Depardieu trying to kiss actress Isabelle Huppert at Cannes film festival. Source: Thibault Camus

He received a Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin in 2013, after he decided to leave France to avoid higher taxes.

BBC reports that the actor was given a lesson in hand-scything by Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko during a surprise visit last week.

Lukashenko has been described by US officials as “Europe’s last dictator”.