Russia does not meet conditions for Western sanctions to be lifted – Ukrainian PM
It is too early to raise the question of lifting anti-Russian sanctions in the context of the current situation in Donbas, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said.
“I believe that all discussions among EU member states, or among Western partners, regarding probability of the sanctions being lifted, are unfounded at this point,” Yatseniuk said, during his meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion in Kyiv, on Monday.
Russia is currently working with all of its might, trying to have the anti-Russian sanctions lifted, he said. “I would like to state loud and clear, that Russia has begun a big game in order to have the anti-Russian sanctions lifted. And Russia’s goal is to make a part of the Western world believe that it is necessary to lift the sanctions, and begin the game entitled, “Who’s to blame for the failure to implement the Minsk [Agreements]?” Yatseniuk said.
In this regard, he stressed that “Ukraine has been consistently and strictly implementing its own part of the [Minsk] Agreements”. “Nothing has been done on the Russian part. Therefore, Russia must cease the fire. Secondly, it must withdraw troops; thirdly, it must remove all artillery and hardware; fourthly, it must grant OSCE access to the entire territory, and, fifthly, must withdraw its troops completely, thus allowing Ukraine to restore its control over the border,” Yatseniuk said.
“The question of […] Crimea and the respective sanctions against Russia must not be removed from the agenda either. And, it is here, that we rely on our Western partners,” he added.
Moscow repeatedly said that there have been no Russian troops or weapons in Ukraine.