BRUSSELS, June 29. /TASS/. The leaders of the EU countries made a political decision to extend economic sanctions against Russia for six months, a source in the EU Council told TASS on the sidelines of the EU summit.

"We had a very short discussion on Russia, Ukraine and the Minsk Agreements, which led to a political decision to extend the sanctions for another 6 months," the source said.

According to the diplomat, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron briefly informed the leaders of the EU countries about the implementation of the Minsk agreements in Ukraine. The regime of sanctions against Russia is linked with these agreements. "It was said that there are no changes, so sanctions are prolonged, the sanctions regime remains unchanged," the source added.

After the adoption of the political decision of the EU summit, the official procedure for the extension of restrictive measures should begin, the diplomat noted.

The EU's sanctions against Russia include: visa restrictions against Russian citizens, economic sanctions against a number of Russian state-owned companies in oil, defense and financial sectors, as well as restrictive measures against the Crimea. All these measures were taken in 2014. The first two types of restrictions are extended every six months, and the prohibitive measures against the Crimea - once a year. The EU summit will also touch upon the investigation of the MH-17 Boeing crash in Ukraine in July 2014.

The Boeing-777 passenger plane operated by Malaysian Airlines crashed on July 17, 2014, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in the east of the Donetsk region. As a result, 298 people, citizens of 10 states, were killed in the crash. The parties to the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine accused each other of being complicit in the tragedy.