The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the decision of the European Union to apply for the first time a new global sanctions mechanism against four Russian officials for human rights violations in Russia, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleh Nikolenko said.

"We hope that the new EU sanctions regime will also be applied against those guilty of suppressing fundamental rights and freedoms in the temporarily occupied Crimea and Sevastopol. Not a single crime by the Russian occupation authorities should go unpunished," the speaker said in a commentary published on Tuesday.

The Foreign Ministry noted the fact that the new sanctions regime started working in a very short time. "It can become an additional effective tool for our state's fight against gross violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, restoring its territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders," the commentary says.

In addition, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that the EU's decision once again demonstrates that the protection of human rights remains an unconditional priority of the EU's foreign policy.