DISINFO: Minsk Agreements 2014-2015 were meant to buy time to prepare Kyiv for the war
SUMMARY
The behaviour of the French and Germans was truly shameful. Those who signed the Minsk agreements on behalf of Ukraine, Germany and France, namely Petro Poroshenko, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande (already retired) said in an interview that they never intended to implement this agreement and that they just needed to buy time to prepare Kyiv for the war.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Minsk agreements, trying to legitimise Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine by claiming that France, Germany and Ukraine are responsible for the war.
This narrative is merged with distorted and manipulative interpretations of 2022 interviews with Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Petro Poroshenko. During the interview, Merkel is clear that she had no illusions about the possibility of establishing a lasting peace through the Minsk talks and the only goal was to reach an agreement that would prevent the immediate takeover of all of Ukraine by Russia, which at that time fuelled and participated in armed hostilities in Ukraine. Hollande confirmed Merkel’s point, saying that the Minsk Agreements “stopped the Russian offensive for a while” while the West decided how “to prevent any further Russian attempts”, but as the international context changed after the Trump presidency loosened US-EU links and “the rout in Afghanistan was seen by Putin as a new sign of weakness in the Western camp […] Putin thought that time had worked in his favour and that he could cross the threshold by further invading Ukraine”. Poroshenko said that it was so important to sign at that time the Minsk agreement for two reason. "Again, to demonstrate for the whole world that Putin is a liar and the second position helped me to create armed forces. Because when I was elected as the president we don’t have armed forces at all”.
At no point did Merkel, Holland or Poroshenko say that they were preparing Ukraine for war, nor that this was the purpose of the Minsk Agreements.
See similar disinformation cases claiming that Merkel and Hollande admitted that the Minsk Agreements were to prepare Ukraine for war, that Ukraine and the West did not intend to observe the Minsk agreements, that the Minsk agreements were signed only to buy time and arm Ukraine for war on Russia, that the West encouraged Kyiv not to implement the Minsk agreements, or that Russia launched a military offensive because Ukraine did not implement the Minsk agreements.