Ukraine leader welcomes EU's extension of sanctions on Russia

KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday the EU's decision to extend economic sanctions on Russia was "an important political decision" on behalf of his country.

The EU announced the six-month extension earlier in the day of the sanctions imposed in retaliation for Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backing of separatist rebels in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region.

"(It is) an important political decision by the leaders of the European Union to continue economic sanctions against Russia for violating Ukraine's territorial integrity and unwillingness to stop hybrid aggression against our country," Poroshenko wrote on his official Facebook page.