KIEV, July 30 – The EU is afraid of the risks associated with the ongoing situation in eastern Ukraine and this could affect the prospects of granting a visa-free regime to Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin said.

"At the same time, there is a political component in this issue [of providing the visa-free regime]. Donbas as well as people related to what is happening there have not disappeared - I mean pro-Russian militants. So, Europeans are now asking: whether we will be able to build up an effective barrier against them so that they could not get a new biometric passport. I hope we were able to convince the EU that we can fully control the process," Klimkin said in an interview with the New Times.