"Russians at War", directed by Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, features interviews with troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine.

Since its debut at Venice earlier this month, it has sparked controversy with some denouncing the film as an attempt to whitewash and justify Moscow's invasion.

Ukraine's culture ministry said it had added Trofimova to its "list of persons who pose a threat to Ukraine's national security".

"The film spreads Russian propaganda," the ministry said, adding that it failed to "adequately address and acknowledge the atrocities committed by Russia during the invasion."

For the film, Trofimova had been embedded with a Russian battalion as it advanced across eastern Ukraine.

The soldiers appear to have little idea of why they had been sent to the front, and are shown struggling to make Soviet-era weapons serviceable.

The documentary was to be unveiled to North American audiences last Friday but the Toronto International Film Festival paused the screenings after receiving "significant threats."

Trofimova has rejected the criticism, telling AFP the production was "an anti-war film" that showed "ordinary guys" who were treated as cannon fodder.