The European Union and the United States are considering fresh sanctions against Russia in the case local elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are not held simultaneously with local elections in Ukraine, the newspaper Kommersant wrote on Friday.

Sources in the Western diplomatic community told the newspaper that the West would name the DPR and the LPR responsible for thwarting the Minsk deal and put the blame on Moscow unless the republics yield in the question of the local elections' timeframe.

"The separatists are alleging that the Ukrainian authorities have not discussed the terms of the local elections with them, but this is not so. The issue was repeatedly raised at meetings of the Contact Group in which Kyiv representatives participated," a source told Kommersant.

In the opinion of the Western diplomat, "Donetsk and Luhansk have not exhibited a wish to reach a compromise: they said the elections would be held on a date different from the one [of elections] in the rest of Ukraine and they did not demonstrate their readiness to organize the elections consistent with Ukrainian laws."

"If representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk continue to insist on their choice and elections in Donbas are held separately from the all-Ukraine [ballot] and are not monitored by international observers, it would be a huge, moreover demonstrative blow to the Minsk agreements. In fact, it would be 'the final nail in the coffin' of the peace agreements. No one in Europe and the United States would believe that Russia is unable to make the separatists abandon this dangerous path," the newspaper has quoted the Western diplomat as saying.

Another source in the Western diplomatic community told Interfax that the sanctions "are not a goal in itself for the United States and the European Union. But we will have no choice if the Minsk agreements are buried so blatantly," he said, refusing to specify which new sanctions might be imposed on Russia.

The sources told the newspaper that the question of the time and terms of local elections in Donetsk and Luhansk would be discussed at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the 'Normandy Four' (Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany) in Minsk this week. The issue will be one of the top ones on the agenda of the quartet leaders, who might meet in New York in late September during a session of the UN General Assembly, Kommersant wrote.

In turn, sources in the Russian diplomatic community told the newspaper that the DPR and the LPR had not had 'a substantive discussion' of the possibility of shifting the ballot date.

"What is the point in doing so if Kyiv can still find lots of other pretexts for declaring the elections in Donetsk and Luhansk illegal, and to prevent the OSCE mission from going there," the newspaper has quoted its Moscow source dealing with the Ukrainian dossier as saying.

A senior source of Kommersant in the Kremlin has called 'a shell game' the attempts of Western diplomats to link the influence of Moscow on DPR and LPR elections to the sanctions.

"This is happening as a result of an extremely free interpretation of the Minsk agreements. It is totally silly to accuse us of not fulfilling them. Is the word 'Moscow' mentioned at least once in the text of the Minsk agreements? Not even once. So, we do not owe anyone anything," he said.

Local elections are planned to be held on October 18 in the DPR, on November 1 in the LPR and on October 25 in Ukraine.