If Russian introduces an embargo on Ukrainian farm produce and food imports on January 1, 2016, then Ukrainian exports will fall by about $140-205 million, according to Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade and Trade Representative of Ukraine Nataliya Mykolska.

The introduction of a Russian embargo on other Ukrainian products would further cut Ukrainian exports by $167-239 million, she said.

"As the list of goods to be subject to the embargo and the customs tariffs overlap on many positions, the decline in exports will be less than the [combined] sum of these figures," she said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

In her words, an embargo would have been more difficult for Ukraine a couple of years ago because the measures would have involved a greater volume of Ukrainian exports.

"Now the situation is quite different. Since 2013, and in fact until today, Russia has been applying technical and other types of barriers against our products," she said.

As reported, the Russian Federation has repeatedly insisted on the need to postpone the launch of the Ukraine-EU Free Trade Area (FTA).

Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said that the food embargo which could be introduced by Russia in relation to Ukraine will become effective as of January 1, 2016 if Moscow does not manage to agree with its partners on an annex to the agreement on the EU-Ukraine FTA that would eliminate risks for Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on October 23 that the European Commission would support Ukraine in its talks with Russia to resolve contentious trade issues.

The full text of the interview in Russian will be available on the Interfax-Ukraine's website in open access.