Deputy Chief of Staff of Ukrainian Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev has said that the European Union must prolong its sanctions against Russia to make the country adhere to the Minsk agreements. "The Kremlin is remaining deliberately deaf to legal and reasoned calls, instead hoping that the current challenges, namely terrorist ones, that humanity faces, will draw attention away from the breaches of international law by Russia," Yeliseyev said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. According to him, Russia can't "hope for pardon via tragedy through solidarity with the victims of another tragedy caused by ISIS." "That's why I believe that the EU decision to at least prolong the sanctions is rather logical and fair. By the way, the sanctions of the international community regarding Donbas aren't an end on their own. There are a way to force the Kremlin to sit down to talks with due diligence to fulfill the reached agreements on a peaceful settlement [to the Donbas conflict]," he said. Yeliseyev said that the leaders of the EU member states will decide on whether to extend the Russian sanctions at a European Council meeting next month. The full text of Yeliseyev's interview in Russian is available on the www.interfax.com.ua website