Germany would like to get back to constructive ties with Moscow, but EU cannot lift sanctions yet - Merkel

11:34, 28.08.2015 1 min read

The European Union still cannot lift the sanctions which were imposed on Russia due to the conflict around Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

"Certainly, we want to attain political framework conditions which would allow us to lift the sanctions," the Deutsche Welle radio station quoted Merkel as saying.

Meanwhile, the German chancellor said that "due to gross violations of international law and the unstable situation up to now, unfortunately, we have not reached this point of agreement."

However, Merkel said that the German government wanted to get back to constructive relations with Moscow.

"We want to have partner relations with Russia, we have quite a lot of international problems," Merkel said, noting that in particular, Moscow would play an important role in the resolution of the conflict in Syria.