After two days of summit, majority of the members of the 28-nation European Union (EU) agreed not to lift the economic sanctions on Russia, unless Moscow fully implements the peace agreement on eastern Ukraine.

"We have to maintain our sanctions until the Minsk agreement is fully implemented," AP quotes EU President Donald Tusk.

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The deal was brokered in February at the capital city of Belarus, Minsk. Ahead of the summit, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk met with Tusk who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dividing Europe over Ukraine. He pushed for a united EU stand against Russia.

Mark Rutte, prime minister of The Netherlands, said that the option to impose more sanctions must be there if the situation in the region worsens. But the EU leaders did not impose new sanctions since the Minsk agreement appears to be largely holding.

The sanctions are slated to lapse in the later part of 2015, but the possibility of extension looms at the next EU meeting in Brussels in June.

Putin still insists that the Russian military is not involved in battles in eastern Ukraine where over 6,000 people have been killed the past 12 months. He described the U.S. and EU economic sanctions as not justified.

Meanwhile, Fox reports that the U.S. will provide training to 750 Ukrainian troops because of the continued Russian aggression. Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez disclosed that troops from the 173^rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, will hold the National Guard training mission at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, western Ukraine.

TagsMinsk ceasefire, European Union, Ukraine, Russia