"The sanctions against Russia can be lifted only in one case – when the Minsk arrangements are fully implemented and Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea return to Ukraine," Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) on Saturday, September 12.

The Prime Minister appealed to Western partners: "If you send mixed signals to Putin – for example, about the possibility of lifting sanctions this is the weakness. This is the way how actually to underpin and support Putin in his aggression against Ukraine. This is not the language he understands," emphasized Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

He noted that the European Union is experiencing the refugee crisis following the crisis in Greece: "The roots of this crisis - the war in Syria. People are suffering, leaving the war zone, they are trying to find the country where to survive. Who supports the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria? This is president Putin. Can you remind me who is building a combat base in Syria? This is President Putin."

"This is the Russian plan to destabilize an entire geopolitics", Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.

He noted that Ukraine as no one else understood the refugee situation in the European Union: "the EU has thousands of refugees, we have millions of IDPs."

"Russia undermined and violated international law. It is entirely unacceptable when a permanent member of the UN Security Council constantly violates the UN Charter. We can succeed as the free world only in case if we provide a strong, united response against the Russia-led aggression," Arseniy Yatsenyuk pointed out.