The EU member states will step up sanction pressure on Moscow if it fails to comply with the Minsk agreements, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Philip Hammond has said in an interview with BBC.
"In this case you will see a significant increase in the EU pressure on Russia," he said.
According to Hammond, "the sanctions imposed on Russia are significant and affect the Russian economy."
"I do not want to talk about "the cold war," but Russia decided that there is strategic rivalry between it and the West, it no longer sees us as partners, but rather rivals and even enemies," the official said.
"This means we will have difficult, strained relations with Russia for a certain period of time," the foreign minister noted.
According to Hammond, Britain "does not believe this conflict [in the southeast of Ukraine] can be resolved by military means."
"It is unwise to follow this way of disparities in the number of Russian and Ukrainian armed forces," he said.
"We provide a large amount of aid to Ukrainians - train them, provide them with technical assistance, as well as supply non-lethal equipment," Hammond said.
The minister said the UK would continue studying the issue of weapons delivery to Ukrainian military men.
According to him, "the number of acts of violence in the southeast of Ukraine has decreased recently, but the strategic approach of the Russian president has not changed."
