BRUSSELS: Ukraine’s new president signed a trade and economic pact with the European Union on Friday, pushing his troubled country closer into a European orbit and angering Russia, which warned of unspecified consequences.

A beaming President Petro Poroshenko called it “maybe the most important day for my country” since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

European Union leaders, meanwhile, decided not to immediately impose new sanctions on Russia for destabilizing eastern Ukraine. In a statement, however, the leaders said new sanctions have been prepared so they could be imposed “without delay” and listed several demands for Vladimir Putin’s government and the pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko’s pro-Moscow predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, backed out of signing the agreement in November and the bloody protests that followed toppled his government, sparking an insurgency in the east and Russia’s annexation of the mainly Russian-speaking Crimean Peninsula.

Agreements signed Friday let businesses in former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia trade freely in any of the EU’s 28 member nations without tariffs or restrictions, as long as their goods and practices meet EU standards. Likewise, goods and services from the EU will be sold more easily and cheaply in the three countries.

Closer ties between Ukraine and the EU have long been overshadowed by Russian opposition. Moscow is loath to see its historic influence wane in its strategic neighbor, which it considers the birthplace of Russian statehood and of Russian Orthodox Christianity.

“There will undoubtedly be serious consequences for Ukraine and Moldova’s signing,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said.

Georgia has already lost chunks of its territory and Black Sea coast to rebels backed by Russia after a brief war with Russia in 2008.

Putin did not immediately comment on the trade pact, but in recent days has signaled that he wants to de-escalate the conflict ahead of talks later Friday by the EU’s heads of state and government on whether to ramp up sanctions against Russia over its conduct toward Ukraine.

“The most important thing is to guarantee.

Meanwhile, Russia’s state-controlled gas company, Gazprom, says it could limit supplies to European customers that intend to re-sell the natural gas on to Ukraine.

Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller said Friday that the company is closely monitoring the situation and may curb shipments to European nations that would pump the Russian gas to Ukraine in the so-called reverse supplies, which he has described as a “half-fraudulent scheme.” He wouldn’t name any specific countries.a long-term cease-fire as a precondition for meaningful talks between the Kiev authorities and representatives of the southeast (of Ukraine),” Putin said Friday.

The EU leaders gave the Russian government and the rebels until Monday to take steps to improve the situation in eastern Ukraine, including agreeing on a way to verify the cease-fire, returning three border checkpoints to Ukraine, releasing all captives and launching “substantial negotiations” on Poroshenko’s peace plan.