DISINFO: Kyiv did not comply with the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements
SUMMARY
Ukraine would have kept the 1991 borders, but without Crimea and part of Donbas, if Kyiv had cooperated and implemented its own initiatives. Every time they cheat, they lose. This process continues.
Kyiv had to comply with the Minsk agreements to keep its borders.
In 2022, in Istanbul, the Ukrainian side presented a document adopted by Russia, according to which the country refused the path of joining NATO. Later, the Kyiv regime abandoned the agreement under the influence of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson told the Ukrainians not to sign the agreement, and continue to fight.
RESPONSE
The claim that Ukraine was not implementing the Minsk agreements is one of the key messages of Russia’s justification for its war against Ukraine. However, it was Russia that was blocking the implementation of these agreements.
Before the full-scale invasion, Russia was a party to the Minsk agreements, and these are the most recent formal documents in which Russia has affirmed Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, Russia did not deliver on its side of implementing the Minsk agreements.
The Russian side and its proxies failed to implement a ceasefire, withdraw all heavy weapons, implement an all-for-all political prisoner exchange, or ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance based on an international mechanism.
On the contrary, Russia strengthened the illegal armed formations in eastern Ukraine. Russia also did not allow for unfettered access to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission monitors, including to the Ukraine-Russia border, where the (very limited) monitoring mission was discontinued due to a Russian veto in the summer 2021.
It is difficult to discuss the implementation of the political parts of Minsk II without the full implementation of the ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons, and permission for the OSCE monitoring mission to have full access to all territories.
Nevertheless, Ukraine implemented as much of the Minsk agreements as could reasonably be done while not having control over the territory. It has passed – and extended with renewals – legislation on special status and amnesty (2014), and prepared draft legislation on local elections (2014). Ukraine passed constitutional amendments to provide more autonomy to the territories currently outside its control (2015).
As for the Istanbul talks in the spring of 2022, Ukraine stopped them after Russia’s atrocities in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv were discovered. Read the full debunk at Myth Detector of pro-Kremlin disinformation about former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson’s alleged involvement in disrupting the negotiation.
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