Tillerson: sanctions from Russia will not be lifted until the return of Crimea

The United States will upgrade sanctions against Russia until Moscow fulfills the terms of the Minsk agreements and will return the occupied Crimean peninsula. This was stated by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a meeting of the NATO Foreign Ministers in Brussels, the press service of the State Department reports .

"Three years ago, Russia's aggression against Ukraine was shocked by the basics of security and stability in Europe. Today, the ongoing occupation and hostility of Russia jeopardizes our common vision of Europe holistic, free and peaceful," the state secretary said. He assured that the support of Ukraine by the United States and NATO remains unchanged.

"We will continue to call Russia to fulfill the Minsk agreements. The US sanctions will remain until Moscow will stop the actions that caused their actions. We alarm the escalation of violence along the line of contact and repeated attacks by Russia supported by Russia on civilian infrastructure, which creates an increased risk of humanitarian disaster," Tilleryson said.

The Secretary of State urged Russia to use its influence on separatists in order to stop violence, stop the attacks of attacks and intimidation of OSCE observers and facilitate access to perform their work. "Russia must understand that there is no reason to move forward according to the political aspects of the Minsk agreements until we will not see the irreversible improvement of the security situation," the Secretary of State emphasized.

Tillerson also confirmed that the sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea should remain in force until Russia return the peninsula to Ukraine’s control.

On March 7, Tillerson, following a meeting with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin, said that Washington will continue to support Kyiv, and sanctions against Russia will remain in force.

On February 9, the representative of the White House Sean Spicer said that the United States did not intend to cancel sanctions against Russia related to the annexation of Crimea. "We are dealing with two packages of sanctions. One of them is in the Crimea. And I think that the US Permanent Representative Haley spoke out very clearly to the UN, that until Russia is leaving Crimea, these sanctions will not be reviewed," Spicier said.

On February 15, US President Donald Trump said that his predecessor Barack Obama showed excessive softness towards Russia in the issue of the annexation of Crimea. "Crimea was taken by Russia under the Obama administration. Was it not too soft towards Russia?" - wrote Trump on Twitter.

On March 4, a report by the State Department on the observance of human rights in the world was published. It noted that the Russian authorities directly or indirectly contributed to numerous violations of human rights both in Russia itself and in Ukraine. Russia continues to support and supply the pro -Russian separatists in the Donbass and thereby bears responsibility for the death of "thousands of civilians", as well as violations of the rights of citizens of Ukraine, including in the annexed Crimea, the document was noted. These actions, among other things, contribute to a deterioration in the situation with human rights in Russia itself.

March 16, acting The official representative of the State Department, Mark Toner, in a statement on the occasion of the three -year anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, emphasized that US sanctions will remain until Russia returned Ukraine control over the peninsula. “The USA does not recognize the“ referendum ”for Russia on March 16, 2014, nor its attempts by the annexation of Crimea and the ongoing violation of international law,” said the representative of the State Department. “In Russia, an illegitimate referendum was organized in which the inhabitants of the Crimea were forced to vote, and foreign troops armed to the teeth occupied their lands.”