Foreign ministers of EU members froze the assets of 21 Russian and Crimean politicians, as well as members of military forces.

If the situation continues to escalate, the EU summit, scheduled to start on Thursday, could further expand the sanctions, Erjavec said but refused to speak about names who have been put on list.

Erjavec said it was clear that the next step will be economic sanctions if the situation escalates.

Economic sanctions will definitely have consequences for the Slovenian economy, said the minister, adding that Slovenia was expecting to double trade with Russia to EUR 2bn this year.

"At this moment, Slovenian economy is not feeling any consequences but the developments of the coming weeks, months is very much dependent on the Ukrainian crisis," the minister said.

At first, Slovenia did not support sanctions against Russia, but the minister said today that things had changed. "Things had not gone so far" and there was not talk of referendum then, explained Erjavec.