No Progress in Implementation of Minsk Agreements on Ukraine Yet - Spanish FM

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said that it was difficult to establish a time period for the EU sanctions against Russia lifting.

GENEVA (Sputnik) — Anti-Russia sanctions will be lifted once the Minsk accords are fulfilled but there is no progress on the issue so far, Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"The EU sanctions against Russia may be lifted when the conditions for this purpose are met, that is, when a significant progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements is achieved," Dastis said.

He added that it was difficult to establish a time period for the sanctions lifting.

"We are talking about particular actions and results, this depends on the work which is being carried out by Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in the Normandy Format and sadly there have been no big progress so far," Dastis said.

Speaking about the possibility of expanding the European sanctions against Russia, the minister said that it was more important to remove them, but there was no significant progress in that respect, either.

The Minsk agreements, struck in February 2015 and brokered by Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, stipulate ceasefire in southeastern Ukraine, where Kiev forces and self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people republics' militia have been clashing since 2014, when the two regions refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government that came to power in what they perceive to be a coup. The sides to the conflict continue to exchange fire, despite the ceasefire deal.

In 2014, Brussels imposed anti-Russia sanctions over Moscow's alleged involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, repeatedly denied by the Russian authorities.