Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has once again confirmed that the 2014-15 Ukraine peace deal she helped arrange was meant to allow Kiev strengthen its armed forces.
The Minsk accords, brokered by Germany, France, and Russia, were meant to stop the fighting in Donbass and create a path for the region’s peaceful reintegration into Ukraine. Kiev promised to enact constitutional reform that would grant autonomy to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The deal, however, was never implemented, as Ukraine argued over the interpretation of the agreement.
“The 2014 Minsk Agreements represented an attempt to give Ukraine time,” Merkel told Italian magazine Sette on Tuesday. “Ukraine has used this time to become stronger, as we see today. The country of 2014-15 was not the same as it is today. And I doubt that NATO could have done much to help Ukraine as it does right now.”