BRUSSELS, September 10. /ITAR-TASS/. After almost five hours of deliberations, EU ambassadors have so far failed to come to agreement on new sanctions against Russia, the European External Action Service’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Maja Kocijancic told ITAR-TASS that there was yet no decision and the discussion was still in progress with no clear indication as to its possible outcome.

A European diplomatic source told ITAR-TASS earlier that at least four EU countries had spoken during the meeting for delaying the discussion until next week.

He said the situation in Ukraine showed that most of the forces involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine were observing the ceasefire and this was a real relaxation of tensions for the first time since the outbreak of the conflict.

The four countries said new sanctions against Russia would send it the wrong signal.

Furthermore, there are other EU countries whose positions have not been clearly determined yet, the source said but declined to provide further details, saying the discussion was going on behind closed doors.

At the same time, Jean Steffens, an expert with the Dutch bank ING, told ITAR-TASS that “the very uncertainty about the sanctions is exerting palpable pressure on the Russian financial markets, having an adverse impact on both the ruble’s exchange rate and investors’ activity”.

A new round of sanctions against Russia will require the approval of all 28 EU member states.