The top diplomats from Russia and the European Union struggled on Monday to overcome deep rifts that have plunged ties to a post-Cold War low despite calling for closer cooperation.
Federica Mogherini, EU foreign affairs chief, insisted that cooperation between the sides was “not frozen” but said that progress was hampered by profound disagreements on subjects including Ukraine and Syria.
“It would be quite surreal to consider ourselves as strategic partners and to have respective sanctions,” Mogherini said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“We share the interest to make our relations better,” she added.
The EU imposed sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for east Ukrainian rebels.
Moscow responded with an embargo on agricultural products from the West.
Mogherini, In her first official visit to Russia, said the EU’s sanctions against Russia were “not an objective in themselves” but were meant to help end the crisis in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it erupted in 2014.
Lavrov meanwhile said the two sides had reiterated the need to fulfil the stalled European-brokered Minsk peace agreements to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
He also called for a “thorough, quick and transparent” investigation after an American monitor with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was killed on Sunday when a patrol vehicle hit a land mine in the rebel-held east.
Ukraine has launched an investigation into the death, the general prosecutor’s office (GPU) said.
The paramedic was on an OSCE monitoring mission patrol near the village of Pryshybin, controlled by pro-Russian separatists, in the Luhansk region when the blast occurred. The US called for a transparent, timely investigation.
Regional prosecutors in the government-controlled part of Luhansk will handle the probe. The GPU said Ukraine was treating the incident, which wounded two others, as a “terrorist act.”
Sunday’s killing was the first death of a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine, where over 700 observers report on the three-year-old conflict that has strained ties between Russia and the West.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also called for a careful investigation into the incident, saying those guilty should be brought to justice.
The OSCE mission’s ambassador, Ertugrul Apakan, who traveled to the site of the explosion on Monday, said both sides needed to respect the much-violated 2015 Minsk peace agreement.
“I reiterate my call for sustainable cease-fire, withdrawal of weapons, full demining and real commitment to peace. And I ask that those responsible for placing mines are held accountable,” he said in a statement.

Source: Arab News