Merkel says sanctions on Russia will remain

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held summit talks with the European Union as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expects sanctions against Russia to be renewed over the conflict in Ukraine’s east.
Poroshenko met European Union Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker in Kiev on Monday, as international monitors reported a surge in fighting near Ukraine’s strategic port city of Mariupol. Merkel said EU governments agreed in March that removal of sanctions, which expire in July, must be tied to adherence to the Minsk peace accord.
“It’s completely clear that fulfilling the terms of this package will take longer than August or September,” Merkel said after talks with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz in Warsaw on Monday. “We will take up this question in June and I think that, on the basis of the joint political decision in March, we will decide to extend the sanctions.”
Ukraine, the EU and the US accuse Russia of sending troops and weapons to aid separatists in the yearlong conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people in eastern Ukraine and devastated the country’s economy. Russia rejects the allegation and has accused the government in Kiev of waging war on its own people, as a fragile ceasefire negotiated in Minsk, Belarus, in February comes under strain.