Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sept. 29 that the European Union (EU) is very far away from considering the lifting of sanctions against Russia introduced over the situation in Ukraine.
‘Unfortunately, we are a very long way away from that [the cancellation of restrictive measures],’ she said at a joint press conference with Finland’s Prime Minister Alexander Stubb in Berlin.
‘The situation is all but satisfactory. There is no protection of the border along the entire Luhansk and Donetsk region – no control, no buffer zones,’ she said.
Merkel said that Germany and the EU might need to reevaluate their energy policies with Russia, if Moscow continued to violate basic principles in eastern Ukraine.
However, she added that there were good reasons to continue the deal, and any future review should not completely cut it off.
Merkel said that the EU had shown astonishing unity in the issue of the Ukrainian crisis.
She added that the West should be ready to the fact that the crisis in Ukraine will continue for a long period of time.
