EU ambassadors have been discussing a sanctions package on Russia consisting of four parts which could be agreed by the bloc's foreign ministers at a meeting later on Tuesday in Paris, an EU Commission source told Reuters.

The package, proposed by the EU's executive Commission, includes banning the trade in Russian state bonds in the European market and kicking the break-away regions in eastern Ukraine out of a free trade deal between the EU and Ukraine.

It also comprises sanctions on several hundred members of Russia's state Duma who voted for the recognition of the break-away regions in eastern Ukraine, as well as on companies and banks involved in the financing of separatist activities in these regions.