Ukraine to remain on Russian market after EU deal

The Russian market will not be closed to Ukraine after it signs a free trade agreement with the EU, but Kiev will lose trade preferences, Russia’s foreign minister said Monday, RIA Novosti reports“We’re not talking about a ban on imports from Ukraine,” Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kozhar, quoted y RIA Novosti
“But preferences… that follow from an agreement about a free trade zone in the Commonwealth of Independent States, these preferences will of course be void,” Lavrov said in Rostov-on-Don.
The EU deal will require Russia and Ukraine to look for a new “optimal model of bilateral cooperation,” RIA Novosti report citing Kozhara as saying at the same press conference.
Ukraine is to sign the free trade and association agreements with the European Union on November 28-29.