The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union (COREPER) will approve the decision to extend the sanctions against 146 individuals and 37 entities from Russia and Ukraine for six months at its meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, a European diplomatic source has told Interfax.

He said COREPER would make the decision on March 9 and he was expecting the Council of the European Union to approve it on March 10.

Three persons who died during the period of sanctions were excluded from the blacklist of individuals suspected by the EU of actions undermining or threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence, the source said.

The targeted sanctions put a freeze on assets of blacklisted individuals and entities in EU banks and banned their travel to the European Union.

The source was unable to say when the decision might be published by the Official Journal of the European Union. He said the date would be mentioned in the resolution of the Council of the European Union.