Russia called for a meeting to discuss the Minsk agreement on the occasion of its ninth anniversary. Russia’s Permanent Representative at the UN Vassily Nebenzia stated at a UN Security Council briefing: “Faithful and consistent implementation of the Minsk agreements by Kiev was the only chance to bring peace back to Ukraine. A settlement required first and foremost direct, inclusive and mutually respectful dialogue between the parties to the conflict as envisioned by the agreements—Donetsk and Luhansk on the one side and Kiev on the other. …
“The people in Donbas did not ask for much. They just wanted to live peacefully on their land, have local self-government, speak Russian and teach it to their children, and honor the memory of those who had liberated their land from fascism rather than those who collaborated with the Nazis. They asked for nothing beyond the rights that national minorities have in any Western European country. However, the new authorities responded to calls for dialogue with blood and violence.”
Nebenzia was reiterating the story that millions of people had heard during Tucker Carlson’s Feb. 9 interview with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. U.S. UN Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood proceeded to call Nebenzia’s depiction of events “significant myths and disinformation,” claiming that Russia never adhered to the Minsk agreement.
