Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has criticised the statement of the head of the European Council Donald Tusk, who tried to convince him to retain the punishment of the EU against Russia in the form of support of the Minsk agreements and relations between the U.S. and the EU.

The day before Tusk said that to support the Minsk agreement, " we must, as a minimum, maintain existing punishment." According to the Finnish broadcasting company, Tusk said that the easing of the sanctions regime would mean that " the EU has made concessions to the Kremlin."

Tuomioja, explaining the words of the head of the European Council, said that a similar approach is not conducive to the unity and the ability of the EU to co-coordinated actions ", according to Yle.

EU leaders will discuss the anti-punishment at the upcoming summit on 19-20 March. If Leaders do not vote unanimously for the renewal of restrictive measures against Russian credit institutions and organisations, introduced because of the Ukrainian downs, penalties will expire this summer. First high-ranking EU Commissioner said that the EU Leaders are unlikely to accept an opinion on the extension of economic sanctions against Russia due to the lack of consensus, the matter will have the opportunity to defer until July.

The problem of Ukrainian settlement fall under negotiation in different formats, for example, at the meetings of the contact group in Minsk, under the mediation of the Russian Federation and the OSCE. The next meeting of the contact group on 12 February of the current year ended with the adoption of a package of measures on execution of the Minsk agreements, involving, for example, the ceasefire in the Donbass from February fifteen, the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the development of the security zone, as well as political issues.

sections: Politics