German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday (August 18) said she hopes for Russia to do more to ensure that the Minsk peace accord, which introduced a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, is fully implemented.
"I would like to be the first to lift the sanctions against Russia, we are making a daily effort and tomorrow again there will be talks held on the basis of the Minsk accord, which the French President and I have pushed forward to find a solution," Merkel told fellow Christian Democratic Union members at at campaigning event in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
"Unfortunately we haven't seen a fulfillment of the Minsk accord so far, but we are working with all our strength so that we come back to a relationship with Russia, which doesn't need sanctions," she added.
The sanctions, imposed over the Ukraine crisis, are designed to block access to Western credit and technology for people and businesses linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Combined with American and G7 sanctions, they have made it harder for Russia to weather an economic crisis fuelled by low oil prices.
The EU last month extended economic sanctions on Russia until the start of 2017, despite misgivings from some countries such as Slovakia who are keen to debate their effectiveness.
Several Moscow-based EU diplomats say Russia's tactic of methodically lobbying southern and eastern EU member states is starting to seriously erode the bloc's unity on the issue, making it potentially harder to renew them next time.
Russia says it will not discuss returning Crimea to Ukraine, meaning there is no prospect that the EU sanctions specifically linked to the annexation will be removed anytime soon.