International security

EU's Russia Envoy: Relations Past Worst Phase

Relations between Russia and the European Union have entered a "more hopeful phase" with a firmer ceasefire in eastern Ukraine suggesting the worst is over, Vygaudas Usackas, the European Union's envoy to Russia, said on Monday.

"I'm more hopeful than I was before, [than] last month," Usackas, the head of the EU delegation to Russia, told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.

East-West relations deteriorated to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War last year when the EU and the United States hit Russia with sanctions after it seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region and the West blamed Moscow for a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.