BRUSSELS, September 22. /ITAR-TASS/. The EU foreign politics department has been appraising the progress of a peace plan of the Ukrainian settlement for purposes of possible revising of the EU sanctions against Russia or lifting the sanctions altogether, a spokeswoman for EU's foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

After announcing new sanctions against Russia which came into force on September 12 President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy declared that EU might drop its sanctions against Russia either partly on in full, which would depend on the situation in Ukraine.

Until the end of September the EU Council is to make a comprehensive survey of the implementation of the peace plan coordinated in Minsk. If the survey shows that the situation in Ukraine inspires confidence, the European Commission and the EU foreign policy service will be instructed to make proposals with the aim to amend, suspend or partly or full lift the sanctions against Russia, Van Rompuy said.

Putin's peace plan

The peace plan suggested by President Putin on September 3 envisages cessation of offensive operations by all the armed formations in the southeast of Ukraine; withdrawal of all law enforcement structures to a safe distance from settlements: establishing international control over ceasefire: non-use of Air Force against peaceful civilians, exchange of prisoners of war on the all-for-all basis; opening of humanitarian corridors and sending repair teams to territories to restore the ruined infrastructure.

A Memorandum adopted by the OSCE Contact Group for Ukrainian settlement bans the use of all types of weapons and envisages their withdrawal to a distance of 15 kilometers from the position of each of the warring sides. OSCE was entrusted with control functions over the implementation of the Memorandum.