“Angela Merkel was right,” said François Hollande, who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017, that the Minsk agreements were an attempt to give Kiev time for the former German Chancellor to strengthen the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Kyiv Independent.
“Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military potential. Indeed, the Ukrainian army was completely different from what it was in 2014. He became better educated and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements that Kiev has such an opportunity,” he said.
According to Hollande, the geopolitical situation after 2014 was not favorable for Ukraine, and Kiev’s partners needed some respite.
On December 7, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Die Zeit newspaper that the Minsk agreements were “an attempt to give Ukraine time”. “As you can see today, she also used that time to get stronger. Ukraine 2014-2015 is not modern Ukraine, ”she said.
The former head of the German government said, “In the battles for Debaltseve in early 2015, [президент России Владимир] Putin could have easily caught them then.” In this war, the DPR and LPR militias won.
“And I highly doubt that then NATO countries would be able to do as much as they do now to help Ukraine,” Merkel said.
He noted that all the countries participating in the Minsk agreements – Germany, Russia, France, Ukraine – understood that at that time the intra-Ukrainian conflict was suspended, but the problem was not resolved.
In response, on December 9, Putin commented on the words of the former leader of Germany: “To be honest, it was completely unexpected for me, it was disappointing,” he said.
“To be honest, I did not expect to hear this from the former Federal Chancellor,” said the Russian President. According to him, “it proceeded from the fact that the FRG leadership was always sincere with us.”
“Yes, of course, he was on the side of Ukraine, supported it, but still it seemed to me that the leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany always sought a solution on the principles that we sincerely agreed on and achieved. Within the framework of the Minsk process,” said Putin.
He added that Russia’s trust in Western countries is almost zero. After such statements, questions arise about guarantees and how and whether it is possible to negotiate with someone. But you still have to bargain. politician stressed.
“We are open to agreements, but this makes us think about who we are dealing with,” Putin said.
The fact that there is no reason to trust the signatures of European politicians was later told by Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.
There’s probably not even a lack of trust, there’s a lack of mutual trust. And of course we have every reason not to trust their words and signatures.”
After the State Council meeting on December 22, Putin stressed that countries in the Normandy format sneer at Russia over the Minsk agreements.
“We all endured, endured, endured and hoped for some kind of peace agreement. Now it turns out that we are only ruled by the nose,” he said.
In September 2014, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, OSCE, LPR and DPR signed the Minsk Memorandum of Understanding. The document fixed the cessation of hostilities. But both the republics and Ukraine violated the agreements.
In mid-February 2015, after the militia occupied Debaltseve, the Minsk Agreement was signed in Minsk. It consists of 13 articles and generally coincides with the September agreements. The document signed by the same Contact Group was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, France François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel with their signatures.