The vice-president of the United States urged Russia to be held accountable due to the situation in Ukraine

The United States must make sure that Russia shall be responsible for events in Ukraine and fulfill the Minsk agreements to de -escalate the conflict in the east of the country. This was stated by US Vice President Michael Pence, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, CNN reports .

Pence noted that the American side will continue to make efforts in this direction, even in the conditions of finding mutual understanding between Russia and the USA, which, "as you know, the President of [US Donald] Trump considers it possible to find it."

In turn, the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation has already expressed disappointment with statements by Pence, Interfax reports. Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, noted that this approach “allows Ukraine, the Kyiv authorities to endlessly sabotage the Minsk agreements”.

“For Kyiv, apparently, the settlement in the southeast is secondary to the desire to avenge Russia and continue to hold Russia under sanctions and in a state of confrontation with the Western world,” Kosachev explained.

In turn, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a speech at a conference in Munich stated that she still had hope for the Minsk agreements - "the only thing we have to continue the dialogue." However, Merkel has not yet seen formal grounds for the implementation of these agreements.

“The Minsk agreements proceeded from the fact that from the first day after the ceasefire we will accept all the political steps. But then it was not possible to ensure the ceasefire in the period of more than 3-4 days. Therefore, from a formal point of view, we still cannot start a political process now, ”she explained.

In early February, the penalty said that, depending on the “behavior of Russia” in the next few months, the issue of lifting international sanctions from it will be resolved in one way or another. Thus, he answered the question of whether the sanctions will remain in force "until Russia violates the truce in Ukraine."