Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko considers Russia's sanctions imposed on November 1 against hundreds of the nation's companies, businessmen and politicians "a kind of state award".

"With a few exceptions, this is a list of very worthy people, including my son, including half of my administration, a large number of people's deputies, most members of the coalition, members of the Ukrainian government," Poroshenko's media office quoted him as saying on November 1. "Being in this list is a kind of state award."

Russia has imposed economic sanctions on Ukrainian 322 individuals and 68 legal entities. The move followed four years of a bitter sanction counter-measures dispute following Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian rebels in East Ukraine. Earlier, Moscow imposed a food import ban, which is widely considered as Moscow's retaliation for Kyiv signing a free trade pact with the EU.

The sanctions caught the headlines, but are considered by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and analysts as largely symbolic and are unlikely to have an economic impact or destabilise the country as business ties between Russia and Ukraine have diminished in the last four years.

"Get out of Ukraine"

Poroshenko added that instead of "muscle-flexing" and imposing sanctions against Ukrainians, Russia "should simply get out of Ukraine", withdrawing its troops and weaponry, restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity. "Then, we will have peace and sanctions won’t be necessary," the president underlined.

He added that Russia's announcement of this sanction list is an "evidence of a non-constructive position of Russia". "They are evidence that Russia is not going to implement Minsk [agreements], are not going to reduce the tension and are not going to take away their troops. This is deplorable."

The same day, the nation's Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan, who was also included to the sanction list, told Interfax news agency that he considers it an honour to be blacklisted.

"I'd be upset if I didn't get on the sanctions list of Russia. It's shameful to be a Ukrainian friend of Russia, that is why I thank the Russian authorities for including me into the sanctions list," he said. They recognised me and many of my colleagues from the Ukrainian government as a clear pro-Ukrainian, pro-European and that is just a normal position."

Blacklisted Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk believes the fact that his name and his London-based company EastOne Group Ltd and his Kyiv-headquartered Bank Credit Dnipro have been included in the list of individuals and businesses on which the Russian government imposed sanctions is an expected course of events.

"I deeply regret to say that such a form of treatment is of no astonishment. This is a natural course of events, a development in relations between our two countries," Interfax quoted Pinchuk as saying. "For us, [the sanctions] are, of course, unpleasant but absolutely natural, and no sanctions and no losses will be able to stop us."

The businessman said that the sanctions will most likely cause discomfort and bring losses; however, they cannot be compared to "the losses and sacrifices experienced by people who are going to the front."

Pinchuk owns Ukrainian leading pipe production holding Interpipe. Pinchuk is married to Olena Pinchuk, the daughter of ex-president Leonid Kuchma.

Moscow's "revenge"

Among blacklisted companies were some Ukraine's public firms, specifically, the nation's largest poultry producer MHP, sunflower oil producer Kernel and Ukraine’s largest iron ore pellet exporter Ferrexpo. MHP's media office said the same day that Moscow's sanctions would not affect the company's operations.

On November 2, Kernel said that the sanctions imposed by the Russian government will not affect the activities of Kernel. "The company owns an asset Russia through a joint venture, but has not been operating in Russia for several years," the company's statement reads.

Blacklisted Ukraine's grain trader Nibulon and the company's CEO Oleksiy Vadatursky does not have accounts, property or enterprises on the territory of Russia, and there are no economic consequences for the company and its head from the introduction of the special economic measures.

"We officially announce that neither Vadatursky nor Nibulon have any accounts, property or enterprises in Russia," the company said on November 1. "We have not had any trade relations with Russian and other companies of the post-Soviet countries since the middle of 1990s."

According to the trader, since 2013, Nibulon also stopped the purchase of goods and equipment manufactured in Russia or its enterprises. "Thus, there are no economic consequences for the company and the CEO from the imposition of these sanctions.

Ukraine's companies believe that Moscow's move is "revenge" for the patriotic position of the hero of Ukraine, CEO Vadatursky and the Nibulon company "in relation to military aggression on the territory of Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, which was publicly expressed". "Revenge for the development of the Ukrainian economy, for large-scale investment activity, for an independent Ukraine, for the European vector of development of our state."