The Government of Ukraine will react to any Russian decision on trade restrictions with retaliatory sanctions. "The Government submits to the Parliament a bill on changes to the law on foreign economic activities with a view to provide the Cabinet of Ministers with legitimate and constitutional powers to impose retaliatory economic sanctions against the Russian Federation and any other country which is a country-aggressor or doesn’t fulfill its bilateral obligations," emphasised Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the government meeting on Wednesday, December 2.

"This will allow the Government to impose immediately retaliatory sanctions following Russia’s decision to use the relevant trade and economic sanctions", he said.

"We, as always, are ready to dialogue, but it doesn’t mean a one-way dialogue," added Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

He noted that, according to preliminary estimates, Ukrainian economy could have a loss up to US$ 600 million after the imposition of Russia’s trade embargo.

The Prime Minister pointed out that Ukraine was ready to Russia’s trade restrictions. According to statistics, for the first nine months of 2015, he noted, the main trading partner of Ukraine was the European Union, "our trade with the EU makes up 32.9%. Over the past three years we have managed to reduce three times our dependence on the Russian market. Today, dependency on the Russian market is only 12.8%."

The Prime Minister also announced that, on December 4, a government delegation would leave for the World Trade Organization in order to hold talks. He reminded that Ukraine had filed a dispute against Russia to the World Trade Organization concerning illegal measures imposed by the Russian Federation on the importation of Ukrainian railway equipment to the Russian Federation, "The examination of the dispute has begun, the first technical consultations in the framework of the dispute will be held at the World Trade Organization on December 4."