The Council of the European Union prolonged the current economic sanctions against Russia for another 6 months (until July 31, 2018). The reporting decision of the Council was revealed on December 21.

"Having assessed the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the Decision 2014/512/CFSP should be renewed for a further six months in order to enable the Council to further assess their implementation," – informed the officials.

As a reminder, the EU imposed the reporting restrictive measures against Russia in August 2014, in view of Russia's actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine.