Ukraine has prepared a package of restrictive measures against Russian products in response to the possible introduction by Russia from November 1 of trade restrictions on Ukrainian goods, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has said.
“If Russia introduces restrictive measures against Ukrainian goods, then a whole package of restrictive measures against Russian products is ready to be imposed,” he said on the Shuster Live program late on Friday.
In particular, he said, the restrictive measures concern 200 Russian citizens and around 300 companies.
Yatseniuk said that Ukraine would be able to partially compensate for losses from reduced trade with Russia.
“We will impose duties on Russian goods. Our situation is the following: we expect them [Russians] to impose restrictive measures… In this case, we will get a decline of about seven billion [dollars] in trade with Russia. However, we will partially compensate for this with a ban on the sale of Russian goods in Ukraine and the fact that we received during the year free access to European markets will also give us additional compensation,” he said.
The prime minister said that Ukraine is obliged to impose sanctions on Russia, as Western partners did.
“We expected, perhaps, more assistance from our Western partners. Someone expected direct military assistance, but I realized that direct military assistance is unlikely. Nobody from the West wants to take responsibility for starting a third world war,” he said.
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