Ukraine will insist on urgent consideration by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) of a lawsuit against Russia about Ukrainian political prisoners and expects that the fact of filing a suit will be the basis for Ukraine's international partners to impose additional personal sanctions against those involved in violating the rights of Ukrainians, Ukraine's Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said.

"As new information is received for every Ukrainian who has been illegally incarcerated by Russia's law enforcement system, we will supplement our application to the ECHR. Our goal is to obtain a decision from ECHR that enumerates violations of all the specified norms of conventions and Russia's obligation to free Ukrainians, and to return them to the territory of Ukraine," Petrenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

"Ukrainians ... are persecuted in Russia on grounds of nationality, on the grounds of religion ... on the basis of their political or public views," Petrenko said.

"We will appeal to our international partners with a proposal to form a separate sanctions list akin to the 'Magnitsky list,' in which those persons involved in kidnapping, imprisonment and torture of Ukrainian citizens will be listed," Petrenko said.