Zelensky admits that he refused to implement the Minsk Agreement, the failure to implement it also sparked the war

BERLIN – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has personally refused to implement the 2015 Minsk agreements. The agreements are a roadmap for peace in the east of the country, co-sponsored by Germany and France.

Zelensky made the confession during an interview with Der Spiegel published on Thursday (9/2/2023) as he continues his European tour.

Zelensky said he viewed the agreement as a “concession” on Ukraine’s part, and had never actually attempted to implement it.

Instead, the agreement was only used to exchange prisoners with the two breakaway Donbass republics.

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The president claims he publicly said this to then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019, with all of them feeling “shocked”.

“But for Minsk as a whole, I told Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel: ‘We can’t implement it like this,’” Zelensky said.

Zelensky added, “I told (Putin) the same thing as the other two. They were surprised and said, ‘If we had known beforehand that you were going to change the meaning of our meeting, then there would have been problems even before the summit.’”

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