KIEV, March 25 /TASS/. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council has approved the "Savchenko-Sentsov list" of sanctions consisting of 54 names, the Ukrainian president’s Press Secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko wrote in his micro blog in Twitter on Friday.

"For the moment, the list has been expanded to at least 54 people," Ukraine’s TV "112" reported earlier.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who was present at the Council’s meeting, suggested expanding the "Savchenko list". "The list of sanctions should become a "Savchenko-Sentsov list" and be supplemented with new names," he said.

The "Savchenko-Sentsov list" imposes personal sanctions on individuals related to the detention and prosecution of Ukrainian citizens Oleg Sentsov and Nadezhda Savchenko.

The Ukrainian president’s press service reported on March 17 that President Petro Poroshenko had handed over to European Parliament President Martin Schulz his proposals on sanctions against individuals linked to the initiation of criminal proceedings and the trial of the former Ukrainian war pilot - Nadezhda Savchenko.

At the same time, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said that neither the EU executive structures nor the executive bodies of the EU member states had taken any practical steps to introduce the so-called "Savchenko list".

A Russian court sentenced Ukrainian ex-pilot Nadezhda Savchenko to 22 years in a general regime penal colony and a fine worth 30,000 rubles ($442 U.S. dollars) on Tuesday, March 22.

Savchenko was found guilty of murdering VGTRK journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin; of an attempt to kill civilians and of illegal crossing of the Russian state border.

Savchenko’s term will be calculated from the date of detention - June 30, 2014. Her prison sentence will last for 20 years and 3 months.

Savchenko earlier said she disagreed with the verdict but would not appeal the court ruling.

The sentence will come into force in 10 days if the ex-pilot does not submit an appeal.

Early in March, Ukraine’s Justice Ministry asked Russia to transfer four Ukrainian convicts to Ukraine because of poor health.

The four Ukrainians include Oleg Sentsov, Yuri Soloshenko, Alexander Kolchenko and Gennady Afanasyev.

On August 19, 2015, a military district court in the North Caucasus sentenced Ukrainians Sentsov and Kolchenko to 20 and 10 years in jail, respectively, on charges of setting up a terrorist organization in Crimea and preparing terrorist acts. A resident of Crimea, Gennady Afanasyev, got a seven-year prison sentence in connection with the same case.

The Moscow City Court sentenced Yuri Soloshenko, the former director of the Znamya defense enterprise in the Ukrainian city of Poltava, to six years in jail on charges of spying for Ukraine on October 14, 2015.