EU delays free trade zone with Ukraine before 2016

The EU Council for General Affairs postponed the creation of the free trade zone with Ukraine till January 1, 2016. The decision was made in accordance with the trilateral agreements EU-Russia-Ukraine from 12 September. This is a part of the association agreement between Kiev and the EU, which the participants of Euromaidan were defending during the riots in Kiev that ended with the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych.

The document states that the decision opens a way for the preliminary application of most of the agreement from November 1.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, which said that Russia would close its market for Ukrainian goods, if Kiev was going to rush the process of association with the EU.

"We continue to believe that only system adjustment of the Association Agreement, which take into account the whole range of risks to the Russian-Ukrainian economic ties and for the entire Russian economy would help us preserve the existing trade and economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and Ukraine," Putin wrote in the letter.