22 December 2015, 15:19 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), the economic component of Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union, comes into effect on January 1. On Monday, Moscow, Kiev and Brussels failed to reach agreement during their discussions on the effects of the EU-Ukraine free trade area on the Russian economy.
"Ukraine is being pushed [by the European Union] to violate its bilateral commitments to us, as well as within the framework of the free trade area of CIS, and this situation is being presented to us as 'standard' situation and we are being asked not to react to it by any means," Zakharova said.
Zakharova said that the European Union chose to ignore the implications of Ukraine's implementing the Association Agreement, adding that both Kiev and Brussels did not want to reach an agreement during the trilateral negotiations.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that if Ukraine retained preferential trade rights within the CIS, while simultaneously opening its market to European goods, Russia’s market could be flooded by an uncontrolled flow of European goods via Ukraine.
On December 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the suspension of a free trade deal with Ukraine within the CIS, effective from January 1, 2016.
