MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. The confession made by German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s in her interview for Die Zeit that the Minsk Agreements were signed in order to buy time for Ukraine to prepare for a military standoff with Russia could be used for an investigation in a tribunal, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"A lot is being said today about the legal assessment of the situation around Ukraine, about some tribunals and all kinds of that thing," she noted. "This, however, is a solid bid for a tribunal. The things that Merkel said in her interview - this is a testimony of a person, who stated it directly that everything that was done in 2014 and 2015 had only one goal: to divert the global community’s attention from the real problems, to buy some time, to pump the Kiev regime with weapons and to lead the situation to a large-scale conflict."

According to Zakharova, the ex-Chancellor’s confession "says the horrible: fraud as modus operandi of the West - machinations, manipulations, all kinds of distortion of truth, law and justice imaginable."

"They [Western representatives - TASS] knew it back then, in 2015, already, when they held hours-long talks, they knew that they would never implement it, that they would pump the Kiev regime with weapons," the diplomat underscored. "They had no mercy for anyone: women, children, civilians of Donbass and Ukraine in general. They needed conflict, and they were ready for it back then already, back in 2015."

Merkel’s confession

Speaking in her interview for Die Zeit, published on December 7, Merkel said the following:

"The 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to buy time for Ukraine. Ukraine used this time to become stronger, as you can see today. Ukraine in 2014-2015 and Ukraine today are not the same."

According to the ex-Chancellor, "it was clear for everyone" that the conflict was suspended and the problem was not resolved, "but it was exactly what gave Ukraine the priceless time."

She doubted that, back then, NATO member states could provide aid to Kiev in the same volumes that they do now.