Sigmar Gabriel
Foreign Minister of Germany Sigmar Gabriel said that the abolition of anti-Russian sanctions may begin after the ceasefire in the Donbass. He said this during a speech at the event organized by the newspaper Handelsblatt, reports TASS.
The diplomat pointed out that the complete lifting of sanctions is impossible. “We step by step adopted decisions about sanctions, we will also gradually change that,” he said.
Gabriel also believes that after the ceasefire and the sending of the UN mission in Donbas to a gradual lifting of sanctions will join US. “I think if we get a truce, we can find a readiness by the US on the issue of lifting the sanctions first,” said the Minister.
September 5, Gabriel said that the deployment of UN peacekeepers on the contact line in the Donbass can contribute to the abolition of anti-Russian sanctions. “If we’ve got the “blue helmets”, it would be the first significant step towards the abolition of restrictive measures against Moscow”, — said the head of the German foreign Ministry, adding that in this case, could begin “a new phase of the policy of detente” with Russia.
This statement provoked a negative reaction in Kiev. The Minister of foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin stated that “this is harmful”, and the words of Gabriel can be seen “as flirting with the Kremlin.”