Merkel, Hollande, Putin, Poroshenko renew support for ceasefire in Ukraine
Yatsenyuk said earlier Kyiv would be ready to enact mirror-like countermeasures as of January 1, 2016, if Russian Federation embargoed the imports from Ukraine.
Yatsenyuk, in televised comments at a cabinet meeting, said the government would also adjust duties on Russian imports, but gave no details.
Ukraine said on Wednesday it may impose a ban as soon as next month on imports of dozens of Russian goods – from dog food to locomotives – as a retaliatory measure against Moscow which this month said it was suspending a free trade zone with Kyiv. “The coming days should be used to consolidate the cease-fire”, she added. The list includes bakery products, pastries, chocolates, meat, fish, coffee, black tea, cigarettes, beer, and other products.
Kyiv has said the trade war with Russian Federation could cost it $600 million next year or about 0.6 percent of its trade turnover.
“The Ukrainian government has made a decision to declare a moratorium on the $3 billion debt that we didn’t take and that was nothing else than a bribe given by the Kremlin to the former president of Ukraine for not signing a free trade agreement [with the EU]”.
Intense shelling rocked several small towns and villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region during the weekend, causing civilian casualties, reports from Ukrainian authorities and pro-independence rebels showed on Monday.
“Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko reaffirmed their commitment to a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine”, and the “concerted withdrawal without delay of heavy weapons”, France’s presidential palace said in a press release on Wednesday.