The Russian Foreign Ministry assessed the prospects for lifting EU sanctions against Russia

The automatic lifting of EU sanctions after the end of the Ukrainian conflict is unlikely to be expected, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Problems at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia.

There's no stopping now: The EU has agreed on the 17th package of sanctions against Russia

The approval of new restrictions is expected on May 20.

"Automatic lifting of sanctions is hardly to be expected, of course," he said.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Package attack: new EU sanctions against Russia are not supported by the United States