Hungary PM rules out automatic extension of EU’s anti-Russia sanctions

Economic sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) on Russia over its alleged role in the crisis in eastern Ukraine would not be extended automatically, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says.

Addressing Hungarian ambassadors in the capital, Budapest, on Monday, Orban said the EU is expected to hold discussions about whether Moscow has abided by the Minsk II agreement on Ukraine.

“At the end of the first half of the year, a serious debate can be expected within the EU about the fulfillment of the Minsk agreement,” Orban said.

“In other words, there won’t be an automatic extension of sanctions against Russia, and whatever decision we will make, that should be preceded by a calm and objective analysis about the Minsk agreement,” he added.

During peace talks in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on February 11-12, 2015, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine reached the Minsk II deal on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from Ukraine’s front lines and a ceasefire, which officially went into effect on February 15. The two sides, however, have continued to engage in sporadic clashes.

Donetsk and Luhansk, the two mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine, have been hit by deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April 2014 to crush pro-Russia protests there.

Russia has been targeted by a series of sanctions imposed by the US and the EU over allegations that Moscow is arming and supporting the pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin, however, calls the accusation “groundless.”

According to the United Nations, over 9,000 people have lost their lives and some 20,000 have been injured in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.

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