Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko revealed that the Ukrainian side held talks on broadening the access for Ukrainian products to the EU markets within the free trade area that is to start operating from January 2016.

"Ukraine and the EU reaffirmed their commitment to launch a comprehensive free trade area starting from January 1, in spite of the hard opposition on the part of Russia [which was] demonstrated with the announcement of another stage of the trade war against Ukraine. […] Given yesterday's statement from Russia, we held preparative talks in an associative format [giving] view to broader opportunities for Ukrainian manufacturers accessing European markets," Poroshenko said in Brussels on Thursday when speaking at the joint press conference that he attended together with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

However, Kyiv received "complete support and approval from our EU partners," Poroshenko said.