BRUSSELS, November 17. /TASS/. The European Union’s sanctions against Russia should be aimed at ensuring the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements rather than hurting Moscow, the Ukrainian foreign minister said on Monday.

“Sanctions are an important tool for stabilization. Sanctions are not aimed at harming Russia,” Pavlo Klimkin said after talks with the representatives of the European Commission in Brussels.

The goal of the sanctions is to “exert real pressure” on Russia to stabilize the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk and implementation of the agreements reached by a Contact Group on Ukraine in the Belarusian capital Minsk in September.

Brussels hosts a regular meeting of the EU Council at the level of foreign ministers which discusses the situation in Ukraine. Around 10 representatives of the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine are expected to be added to the EU blacklist.

The EU’s additional economic sanctions against Russia are not on the agenda of the meeting.

Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov told TASS last week that the sanctions are ineffective and far-fetched and the bloc has nearly exhausted its sanctions potential.

The European Union and the United States imposed the latest batch of sectoral sanctions against Russia in mid-September despite the deal on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine signed in Minsk.