The topic of sanctions was not addressed by foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, the countries of the "Normandy format", at their meeting in Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We did not discuss sanctions. Sanctions are not our problem. It is the problem of those who introduced them and do not know today how to get themselves out of this vicious circle," Lavrov told a news conference after the Berlin talks on Thursday.

"But I think that our partners will reach some decision. They realize that it is a road to nowhere, that it is a deadlock, into which they have driven themselves on their own," he said.

Moscow's "position is that our relations can be based exclusively upon an equal dialogue that would heed all mutual interests," the Russian minister said.