WASHINGTON - The United States is not ready to return to its erstwhile relations with Russia because of the situation in eastern Ukraine, U.S. Department of State spokesman, Mark Toner, said during a Twitter conference on June 10.
“There can be no return to ordinary relations with Russia, given Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine,” he wrote on the State Department’s official Russian-language service on Twitter.
The two countries “should have the possibility to hold talks when they need to,” he said.
In particular, “the U.S. believes that the path Russia must follow to have the sanctions lifted is via full implementation of the Minsk commitments,” he said.
“Ukraine made efforts to implement the Minsk agreements,” he said.
“We are concerned by violations along the ceasefire line, involving the heavy weaponry prohibited by the Minsk agreements. We are certain that the only hope to reach progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements is to end violence by the joint troops of Russia and separatists, stop the intimidation of OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] monitors and give them full access to the separatists-controlled areas,” Toner said.
