BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that Russia must adhere to all points of last year’s Minsk agreement for a Ukraine truce before European sanctions against Moscow can be lifted.

“I think we need to see the entire Minsk agreement implemented before we can say that sanctions will be lifted,” Merkel said at joint press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Berlin.

The German leader’s comments contrasted with those of some members of her ruling coalition and of European leaders including French President Francois Hollande that suggested sanctions against economically-ailing Russia could soon be eased.

Merkel also said plans for a four-way summit in Kazakhstan on Jan. 15 between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France were still subject to preliminary talks between their foreign ministers.

“The talks in coming days will show whether we’re ready for such a meeting,” she said about her planned Astana gathering with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Hollande.

Merkel, who has frequently discussed the conflict with Putin, stressed that “the implementation of sanctions had certain causes, and these sanctions can only be lifted when the causes are eliminated again.”

She said some sanctions followed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea — an issue where she saw “little hope at the moment” — while other punitive measures were “implemented in the context of the interventions in eastern Ukraine.”

Therefore, she said, the key to ending sanctions would be to meet not just some but all the points of the Minsk agreement struck in September between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed militias.