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EU fails to see real reasons for escalation in Donbas — Russian Foreign Ministry

Moscow is bewildered at the decision of the EU Council on Foreign Relations to expand the EU sanctions list against a number of Russian individuals and legal entities
Russian Foreign Ministry ITAR-TASS/Gennadiy Khamelyanin
Russian Foreign Ministry
© ITAR-TASS/Gennadiy Khamelyanin

MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. The expansion of the EU sanctions list is detrimental to the emerged opportunity to find a solution to the internal Ukrainian crisis; Russia will adequately respond to this move, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Moscow is surprised at the EU move, pointing to the inconsistency of Brussels’ actions.

"We are bewildered at the decision of the EU Council on Foreign Relations of February 9 that took effect on February 16 to expand the EU sanctions list against a number of Russian individuals and legal entities," the ministry said in a commentary. "The European Union has once again spared itself the trouble to critically and without bias analyse the real causes of the escalation of the situation in the southeast of Ukraine and again preferred to do the Kiev’s ‘party of war’ bidding."

"There is a lack of consistency and logic in Brussels’ actions that hurries to introduce new anti-Russian restrictions every time when the hope for the settlement of the internal Ukrainian crisis emerges," the Foreign Ministry said.

"Such decisions look especially absurd against the background of the February 12 Minsk agreements concluded by the leaders of the leading EU member states," the ministry added. "We have the impression that Brussels and EU member states’ capitals either cannot control the sanctions’ spiral any longer or are in a hurry to convince the public that the EU sanctions have made Russia’s attitude more flexible."

"One thing is clear - such decisions that will be met with an adequate response - defy common sense and are ruining the emerged opportunity to find a solution to the internal Ukrainian conflict," said the Foreign Ministry.