EU Will Not Decide on Anti-Russian Sanctions During Monday Meeting: Source

BRUSSELS, January 14 (Sputnik) — The European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council will not decide on any changes in the sanctions against Russia during its next meeting on Monday, a source close the EU leadership said Wednesday.

“I do not expect a decision on the matter on Monday,” the EU source told RIA Novosti.

A number of EU leaders, including the union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, have stated that sanctions against Russia are to be lifted if the Minsk agreements on Ukraine are observed and the situation in the conflict-torn Donbas region stabilizes. On Tuesday, President of the European Council Donald Tusk stated that the EU will review the current anti-Russia sanctions in March.

Kiev authorities and eastern Ukrainian militia signed a ceasefire deal and a memorandum outlining its implementation in September 2014 as an outcome of the Minsk talks brokered by Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Both sides have since blamed each other for numerous ceasefire violations.

Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated during 2014 over the crisis in Ukraine. The European Union, alongside the United States and a number of allied countries, has imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, claiming that Moscow provides military support to the militia in Ukraine’s southeast. The sanctions target Russia’s banking, energy and defense sectors, as well as certain individuals.

Russian authorities have firmly denied any involvement in Ukraine’s internal affairs. In August, Moscow responded to the restrictive measures with a one-year ban on certain food imports from the countries that had introduced sanctions against it.