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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday warned Westerners against lifting the sanctions on Moscow for the annexation of Crimea and its support for the pro-Russian separatists as Paris moves closer to Russia.
" Sanctions are a powerful and effective diplomatic weapon. I do not get tired of repeating to our Western partners who help us but sometimes think of the lifting of the sanctions: you lose money, really? But we are losing people, "said Zelensky, referring to the thousands of victims of the war in eastern Ukraine, unleashed in 2014.
He said the sanctions " are a tax for peacekeeping ". " As long as it has not been restored, the sanctions must be preserved, " he continued in a speech at a forum in Kiev organized by the oligarch Viktor Pinchuk's foundation.
The reprisals of Russia
Relations between Kiev and Moscow are going through an unprecedented crisis since Russia's annexation in 2014 of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, followed by the outbreak of a war with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has has nearly 13,000 dead .
Kiev and Westerners accuse Moscow of militarily supporting the separatists by providing fighters and weapons, which Russia denies despite the findings of several media including AFP.
The European Union on Thursday extended for six months sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials for their involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.
These sanctions, renewed for five years, are accompanied by economic restrictions in the sectors of oil, defense and Russian banks. Moscow had adopted, in retaliation, an embargo on most European food products, striking a blow to the agri-food sector of several countries including France.
( with AFP )