According to Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, the European Union has suffered a 21 billion euros loss in exports as a direct result of the sanctions placed against Russia over its conflict with the Ukraine. The foreign minister said this on Monday as he met with his counterparts to discuss further measures to be taken in the wake of the loss.

"Sanctions have had a heavy cost for us all, the EU has so far lost 21 billion euros ($23.7 billion). In Spain we have been badly hit in terms of agriculture and tourism," Garcia-Margallo said according to Yahoo.

This is the first time a figure of such a palpable loss has hit the EU.

The EU has in recent months become increasingly divided over the strict economic sanctions, there since July, that it has placed upon Russia. The repercussions of the sanctions have left a number of member states fearing for their future trade ties with Moscow. According to EU figures, in 2013 exports for the 28-nation bloc to Russia came to 119 billion euros.

Foreign ministers of the EU were set to agree on adding further individuals to the Ukraine blacklist at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.

However, with an upcoming four-way peace summit in Minsk wherein leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France will aim to meet in the capital city of Belarus on Wednesday in order to discuss a peace plan for eastern Ukraine, the EU seems to be having second thoughts. The meeting was organized after leaders of the four countries talked about the ongoing conflict via telephone on Sunday.

According to BBC, since April 2014 there have been more than 5,300 deaths because of fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels.

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