The United States is ready to impose new sanctions
against Russia if the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the situation in
Donbas continue to be violated, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said during the Yalta European Strategy
Annual Meeting in Kyiv on Saturday.
"The sanctions will take effect until the Minsk agreements
are fully implemented. When the Minsk accords are fully implemented, including
the return of the Ukrainian sovereignty over the state border, then we can
start to weaken some sanctions. But if the Minsk agreements continue to be
violated, it will lead to the introduction of more sanctions, and we will urge
our European partners to do the same," Nuland said.
At the same time, she said that the sanctions against
Crimea would remain in force as long as Ukraine did not restore its sovereignty
over the peninsula.
UNIAN’s memo. Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory
of Crimea in March 2014 after its troops invaded the peninsula, and then began
to destabilize the situation in the Donbas. Later, the self-proclaimed Donetsk
and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) were created, with the direct
participation of Russian special forces and the support of Russian army in
Donbas, according to Ukraine officials.
A growing body of evidence shows Russia also supplies
weapons to the militants of the DPR and LPR and sends mercenaries and its
regular troops to fight in the Donbas.
The European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan,
Australia, and several other countries imposed sanctions against Russia because
of its annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and its destabilization
of eastern Ukraine.
In March 2015, President of the European Council
Donald Tusk said that European
Union leaders had decided to align further sanctions against Russia to the
implementation of the Minsk agreements and would maintain these sanctions until the Minsk agreement
were fully implemented.
Experts estimate that Russia has lost EUR 98 billion
as a result of international sanctions.
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