Foreign Minister George Vella told Parliament yesterday that countries needed to be prudent before deciding to impose sanctions following the flare-up of violence in Ukraine, noting that atrocities had been committed by both sides.

Dr Vella said he would be attending an EU foreign ministers’ meeting today to discuss the worsening situation.

Of the four trends of thought currently in the EU on the unfolding situation in Ukraine, he would prefer to tread carefully and bring both sides closer to dialogue.

He expected the 28 ministers to eventually edge closer together by the time the open-ended meeting was over.

He was not expecting any official EU declaration before a full analysis of the situation.

Dr Vella was answering questions from Opposition MPs Carm Mifsud Bonnici and George Pullicino. Mr Pullicino asked if the EU could be expected to step up its pressure following reports of police armed with Kalashnikov rifles in the main square of Kiev and political prisoners arres-ted undemocratically.

The minister said there had been political prisoners in Ukraine long before the crisis started. The police had manifestly overstepped their limits, even going by reports of EU representatives.

He would only know who would be participating at this afternoon’s meeting once it was ready to get under way but he was not excluding the presence of Ukraine Opposition leaders on the fringes.

Dr Vella said the only personal contact he had had with the Opposition in Ukraine had been when he was there at the start of the crisis for another EU meeting.

He had found the Opposition to be very disunited, and there had been no correspondence since with himself or his ministry.