PARIS, January 18. /TASS/. The European Union has no plans to impose preventive sanctions on Russia, but is ready to act in case of its hypothetical attack on Ukraine, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel told the European Parliament’s commission on foreign affairs.

"Nobody has talked about preventive sanctions," he said. "There will not be preventive sanctions. <…> We are discussing about what to do in case that something happens, in order, if something happens, not to lose two weeks on discussions among us."

"To be prepared to act does not mean to act before it is needed," the EU top diplomat added.

In his words, the European Union is "pushing Ukraine to perform reforms on the political system, on the judiciary, on many issues" in order to make the country "more resilient to external pressure."

"No we are saying to our friends in Ukraine, in the past and we will continue saying them in the future that our support is not for free. We support Ukraine in order to help them to do reforms of the political, economic and institutional systems that make Ukraine more resilient to face foreign pressure," he said, adding that implementation of those reforms would make Ukraine "more democratic, more prosperous.".