BRUSSELS. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Sanctions against Ukrainian officials in the current situation are inappropriate and ill-timed and will have little impact, Russian ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov has told Russian reporters.
"In conditions of acute confrontation, virtually an attempt of a coup and change of power by force the question of sanctions is inappropriate, to say the least, and in any case ill-timed," he said.
"If the European Union takes this road [of sanctions against Ukrainian leaders], this will mean that it definitely takes the side of the forces that are trying to illegally overthrow the democratically elected government and president. Targeted sanctions will have little effect in the current situation anyway. It is a political gesture. It is not a strangling knot for Ukraine," he added.