OREANDA-NEWS. The Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said that the “body” of the system of international pressure on Russia “is beginning to be slowly penetrated with paralysis,” and sooner or later the sanctions imposed by European countries would be lifted.

“We have been ready for this for five years, in fact from the very first day,” the politician said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine agency. Kuleba called the normalization of relations between large states a law of history. According to him, such countries, having quarreled, always go to reconciliation after that, and the fact that Europe managed to keep the system of pressure on Russia for five years is “a miracle.” “This is an unprecedented state for European partners… it is unusual for them, and they do not want it. …They want to make business as usual. And we understand that this can happen,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

According to Kuleba, Kiev in this situation needs to be prepared to get the maximum compensation from the initiators of the lifting of sanctions. “We must understand that at any time, any promise may be broken. But this is the task of diplomacy and politics to prevent this, or to get the maximum benefit in exchange for breaking a promise. This is how politics works,” Kuleba explained.

At the same time, the minister noted that there is no reason to believe that “everything has been lost” and the European Union’s sanctions against Russia will not be extended.

The European Union imposed sanctions in 2014, after the Crimea became part of Russia as a result of a referendum. The sanctions were repeatedly expanded. In June 2019, the Council of the European Union officially extended sanctions against Moscow in the economic sphere until January 31, 2020.