KRUEN, GERMANY | BY
Group of Seven (G7) leaders vowed at a summit in the Bavarian Alps on
Sunday to keep sanctions against Russia in place until President Vladimir Putin
and Moscow-backed separatists fully implement the terms of a peace deal for
Ukraine.
The Ukraine conflict and a long-running debt standoff between Greece and
its European partners dominated the first day of the annual meeting hosted by
Chancellor Angela Merkel at Schloss Elmau, a luxury Alpine hotel in southern
Germany.
Merkel is hoping to secure commitments from her G7 guests to tackle global
warming ahead of a major United Nations climate summit in Paris in December.
The German agenda also foresees discussions on global health issues, from
Ebola to antibiotics and tropical diseases. But Ukraine took center stage on
Sunday, with U.S. President Barack Obama calling for "standing up to
Russian aggression".
The leaders want Russia and Ukraine to comply with a Feb. 12 ceasefire
agreed in the Belarus capital Minsk that largely halted fighting in eastern
Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
EU leaders agreed in March that sanctions imposed over Russia's seizure and
annexation of Crimea and detribalization of eastern Ukraine would stay until
the Minsk ceasefire was fully applied, effectively extending them to the end of
the year, but a formal decision has yet to be taken.
Merkel said any easing of the sanctions depended largely on Russia and its
behavior in Ukraine.
European Council President Donald Tusk went further, saying: "If
anyone wants to start a discussion about changing the sanctions regime, it
could only be about strengthening it."
European monitors have blamed a recent upsurge in violence in eastern
Ukraine on the pro-Moscow separatists. Russian President Vladimir Putin was
frozen out of what used to be the G8 after Moscow's annexation of Crimea last
year.
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