MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) – The European Union (EU) is ready to review new sanctions it plans to impose on Russia next week if a truce between the Kiev government and independence fighters in southeastern Ukraine holds, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Sunday.
"We are ready if the ceasefire is durable, and/or if the peace talks start, to review these sanctions,” Van Rompuy told Belgian TV channel VRT, as quoted by Agence France Presse.
"The most important thing was to achieve a ceasefire. There have been a few incidents. We have to wait a bit to see if these incidents will continue or if they are exceptions," Van Rompuy added.
Meanwhile Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned the West against cancelling a new round of sanctions against Russia.
“What constitutes a major threat? A situation where there is a peace plan, no shooting, everything is calm, and the world goes back to ‘business as usual’, in other words everything is the way it usually is, and everyone gradually forgets that there was Crimea, there was Ukraine, just like they forget about other conflicts,” Yatsenyuk said Sunday in an interview with the Ukrainian 1+1 TV Channel.
EU leaders, along with US President Barack Obama, agreed to impose new sanctions against Russia on Friday, despite the ceasefire agreement signed on the same day between Kiev and Ukraine’s independence fighters at the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk.
On Sunday, both sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire, with both independence fighters and Kiev forces claiming their innocence.
