Talking to journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing Eurasian Economic Union summit in Bishkek yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to a question from TASS about former German Chancellor Merkel’s revelation in an interview in Die Zeit this week, that Ukraine and Germany, at least, had never viewed the Minsk II agreement as a serious conflict-solving approach, that the Minsk agreements were signed with the express purpose of giving Ukraine time to prepare and then to fight Russia. Putin replied:
“Honestly, this was a complete surprise to me. This is disappointing.
“Frankly speaking, I did not expect to hear this from the former Federal Chancellor because I always thought that the leaders of the Federal Republic of Germany were sincere with us. Of course, they were on Ukraine’s side and supported Ukraine, but I still thought they had always been sincerely striving for a settlement….
“What you have just said only shows that we did everything right by starting the special military operation. Why? Because it transpired that nobody was going to fulfill these Minsk agreements. The Ukrainian leaders also mentioned this, in the words of former President Poroshenko, who said he signed the agreements but was not going to fulfill them.
