LONDON
\nThe UK could lift its \u201ccrippling\u201d sanctions should Russia withdraw from Ukraine and commit to abstaining from \u201cfurther aggression,\u201d Britain\u2019s foreign secretary Liz Truss has revealed.
\nIn an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Truss said they \u201cshould only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.\u201d She described the sanctions as the \u201chard lever\u201d that should be used when dealing with Russia \u2013 which she claimed had not complied with the \u201cmultiple agreements\u201d it had signed up to.
\nTruss has told a British newspaper such a move would be contingent on Moscow\u2019s withdrawal from Ukraine. She further said that the lifting of sanctions should be seen as the incentive in exchange for which Russian President Vladimir Putin would be required to stop his military campaign in Ukraine. However, should there be \u201cfurther aggression in future\u201d on the part of Moscow, there would have to be an option on the table to impose \u201csnapback sanctions,\u201d she noted. Truss revealed that she had established a special \u201cnegotiations unit\u201d in the Foreign Office, tasked with aiding future peace talks. She is the first British official to suggest that the sweeping sanctions levied on Russia could be removed as part of a settlement between Moscow and Kiev.
\nHer remarks echo those of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who, in a statement last Wednesday, pointed out that \u201csanctions in and of themselves are not designed to be permanent.\u201d Blinken noted similarly that if \u201cPutin stops the aggression,\u201d the punitive economic measures could \u201cgo away.\u201d
\nA source close to Truss is cited by the Sunday Telegraph as having said that, as \u201cRussia has shown it simply does not abide by international rules and treaties,\u201d the prospect of sanctions being snapped back \u201cwould be a significant deterrent to future aggression or rule-breaking.\u201d
\nSince February 24, when Russian troops and military hardware crossed the Ukrainian border, the US, the EU, the UK, and several other nations have imposed on Moscow several rounds of unprecedented economic sanctions, targeting, among other entities and individuals, its central bank\u2019s assets, a number of its commercial banks, a host of businesspeople, and the Russian leadership directly.
\nIn response, Russia has demanded that any nation buying its oil and gas that has imposed sanctions pay in rubles for importing hydrocarbons. Moscow sent its military into Ukraine a month ago, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev\u2019s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia\u2019s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.
\nRussia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two republics by force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON The UK could lift its \u201ccrippling\u201d sanctions should Russia withdraw from Ukraine and commit to abstaining from \u201cfurther aggression,\u201d Britain\u2019s foreign secretary Liz Truss has revealed. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Truss said they \u201cshould only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[949,1110,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-251872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-conditions","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-russia"},"yoast_head":"\n