By Ilgin Karlidag
BRUSSELS
The European Union has dropped sanctions imposed last year on Ukraine's former spy chief who worked under ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.
The 28-nation-bloc announced in a legal notice on Friday its decision to drop sanctions imposed on Oleksandr Yakimenko, who ran Ukraine's SBU security service until Yanukovich left the country in February 2014.
Yakimenko was one of four Ukrainians linked to the former government whose names were not added to a renewed sanctions list unveiled in an EU legal gazette in Brussels on Friday.
Yakimenko, along with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov's son, Oleksii Azarov, and two one-time presidential aides, Andriy Portnov and Ihor Kalinin, have been exempt from asset freezes because of a lack of evidence in their involvement in stealing Ukrainian funds - charges on which the sanctions are based.
The announcement came as EU foreign ministers gathered in the Latvian capital of Riga, where foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the bloc will not lift sanctions against Russia unless there was an improvement on the ground in eastern Ukraine.
"They [sanctions] will not be lifted until something really good happens on the ground and, on the other side, we are always ready to increase the pressure if needed," Mogherini told reporters in Riga.
'Positive trend'
Her comments came a month after a peace accord was signed by Russian and Ukrainian leaders in Minsk and amid ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine.
She said: "So far the ceasefire has been starting, not perfect (and) with some violations still, but for sure the trend is a positive one.
"We need ... to strengthen the OSCE mission that is on the ground now."
The UK’s Foreign Minister, Philip Hammond, echoed Mogherini’s comments on Friday, saying the European Union was united on the question of sanctions.
"We will prepare possible new sanctions, which could be imposed quickly if there is further Russian aggression or if the Minsk agreement is not complied with," he said.
