The Minsk Accords Were a Ruse; Russia Is Going to Crush Ukraine Unless It Surrenders
Assembled by Steven Starr / Special to EAW
(December 30, 2022) — Merkel, Hollande, and Poroshenko — the German, French, and Ukrainian leaders who signed the Minsk Accords — have all publicly stated that the Accords were a ruse designed to give Ukraine time to rebuild its armed forces. A top Russian Senator responds (article copied below):
“The confessions by Merkel and Hollande are a formalization of betrayal… The price of this betrayal is thousands of human lives lost over the past eight years of civil war in Ukraine. The civil war that the West didn’t stop by treating the Minsk agreements as scrap paper,” Kosachev wrote.
For Russia, this is the final confirmation that the West is not to be trusted.
The behavior of Washington and others this year “is the last warning to all nations: there can be no business with the Anglo-Saxon world [because] it is a thief, a swindler, a card-sharp that could do anything…. From now on we will do without them until a new generation of sensible politicians comes to power… There is nobody in the West we could deal with about anything for any reason.” (Ex-Russian President outlines timeline for reconciliation with the West, RT)
Why did the West lie to Russia and make the Minsk Accords a ruse? Mike Whitney (article copied below) tells us why they did this:
“They wanted a war, which is the same reason why Boris Johnson put the kibosh on an agreement that Zelensky had negotiated with Moscow in March. Johnson sabotaged the deal because Washington wanted a war. It’s that simple.”
Russia has heard the confessions of Merkel, Hollande, and Poroshenko, and Russia is about to give Washington the war it asked for.
“The Russians have decided there is no way to negotiate an end to this. No one will negotiate in good faith; therefore we must crush the enemy. And that’s what’s coming.” Colonel Douglas MacGregor (9:35 minute)
The entire Western narrative that “Russia is desperate, Russia is losing the war” is about to be shattered. What will the neocons do when it becomes clear that Russia is going to win the war?
Assembled by Steven Starr, an associate of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Merkel Doubles Down on Ukraine Peace Revelations
MOSCOW (December 28, 2022) — Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has once again confirmed that the 2014-15 Ukraine peace deal she helped arrange was meant to allow Kiev to strengthen its armed forces.
The Minsk accords, brokered by Germany, France, and Russia, were meant to stop the fighting in Donbass and create a path for the region’s peaceful reintegration into Ukraine. Kiev promised to enact constitutional reform that would grant autonomy to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The deal, however, was never implemented, as Ukraine argued over the interpretation of the agreement.
“The 2014 Minsk Agreements represented an attempt to give Ukraine time,”Merkel told Italian magazine Sette on Tuesday. “Ukraine has used this time to become stronger, as we see today. The country of 2014-15 was not the same as it is today. And I doubt that NATO could have done much to help Ukraine as it does right now.”
Serbia Learns Lessons From Merkel’s Bombshell
Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko said in June that Kiev had used the Minsk accords to buy time to rebuild its military and economy. Merkel made a similar point this month, describing the agreements to Die Zeit newspaper as an attempt to allow Ukraine to “get stronger.”
Moscow cited Kiev’s failure to implement Minsk as one of the reasons it launched its military operation in the neighboring state in late February. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Merkel’s words demonstrate that “they were also lying to us and only wanted to pump Ukraine with weapons and get it prepared for a military conflict.”
Merkel’s view on the Minsk agreements was also criticized by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who described the revelations from her Die Zeit interview as “unbelievable.” Vucic promised to draw lessons for Belgrade, which in the past has conducted EU-brokered negotiations with the breakaway region of Kosovo.
Hollande Confirms Merkel Statement on Donbass
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(December 30, 2022) — The 2014 Minsk Agreement was indeed a ploy to buy Ukraine time and should be credited for Kiev’s “successful resilience” now, former French president Francois Hollande said on Friday. Confirming former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s assessment of the truce, Hollande also blamed US weakness for the failure to deter Russia.
Earlier this month, Merkel described Minsk as “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its military. Speaking with the Kyiv Independent, a pro-government Ukrainian outlet, Hollande agreed, saying Merkel was “right on this point.”
“Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture. Indeed, the Ukrainian army was completely different from that of 2014. It was better trained and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements to have given the Ukrainian army this opportunity,” Hollande said, adding that it also stopped the advance of Donbass “separatists” on Mariupol.
Hollande was president between 2012 and 2017, choosing not to run for re-election after polls showed him as the least popular French leader in recent history, with a 97% disapproval rating. In Friday’s interview, he credited himself for wanting “maximal” sanctions against Russia, while other EU leaders were reluctant.
Ukraine Falsifying History, ‘Replacing’ Memory
Here Hollande diverged from Merkel, pointing out she greenlit the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in 2015, while he canceled the sale of Mistral-class ships to Moscow. The former French leader also had harsh words for his American counterparts, accusing Barack Obama of “American withdrawal from the international scene” in Syria, Donald Trump of undermining NATO, and Joe Biden of “the rout in Afghanistan” that signaled “weakness in the Western camp” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
By contrast, Hollande praised Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for the “ability to appeal to the whole world and mobilize the Ukrainian nation,” saying this will be “central to the outcome of the war and the respect of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
According to Hollande, the conflict will end when Russia fails, and then the Minsk agreements “can be resurrected to establish a legal framework already accepted by all parties.”
Moscow has yet to comment on the former French leader’s statements. Putin has responded to Merkel’s revelations by saying he had thought her honest, and that trust between Russia and the West was currently “almost at zero,” making future negotiations difficult at best. He also said her comments vindicated his decision to send troops into Ukraine and that in hindsight, the military operation should have started sooner.
Confessions by Hollande and Merkel Are a ‘Formalization of Betrayal’
Sputnik
MOSCOW (December 31, 2022) — The West has proven it only cares about territory in Ukraine, not people, Konstantin Kosachev says.
Thousands of people have lost their lives in eastern Ukraine since 2014 because the West treated the Minsk agreements as scrap paper, the vice speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament said on Saturday.
Senator Konstantin Kosachev was reacting to an admission by former French president Francois Hollande that the Minsk agreements were actually a ploy to buy time for the Kiev government to strengthen its military. This move should be credited for Ukraine’s “successful resilience” to Russia in the ongoing conflict with its neighbor, he added.
Hollande was echoing a statement by former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who described the Minsk accords in December as “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its armed forces.
The Minsk-1 and Minsk-2 deals were signed in 2014 and 2015 following mediation by Germany, France and Russia. They were designed to put an end to fighting between Kiev and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk by giving them special status within the Ukrainian state. Kiev’s failure to implement those agreements has been cited as one of the reasons for Moscow launching its military operation on February 24.
Hollande Backs Up Merkel Revelation on Donbass
RT News
“For the West, the territorial integrity of Ukraine is all about control over land and not about achieving social consensus. It’s about territory, not people. It’s about violence, not negotiations,” Kosachev wrote on Telegram.
This approach “directly contradicts so-called European values,” he said. The senator noted that Western attitudes towards the territorial integrity of the UK and Spain have been completely different in the face of Scotland and Catalonia’s push for independence.
“The confessions by Merkel and Hollande are a formalization of betrayal… The price of this betrayal is thousands of human lives lost over the past eight years of civil war in Ukraine. The civil war that the West didn’t stop by treating the Minsk agreements as scrap paper,” Kosachev wrote.
According to the UN estimates, more than 14,000 people were killed in Donbass between 2014 and early 2022.
The only co-author of the Minsk agreements that genuinely tried to act as a guarantor was Russia, the senator claimed. Moscow sided with the people and left the territorial issue aside for as long as “it was still possible to implement the Minsk accord,” he added.
The People’s Republic of Donetsk and Lugnask, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, joined the Russian state in autumn after holding referendums. Kiev and its Western backers have called the votes a “sham” and refused to recognize the results.
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