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Kremlin says Minsk deal revelations by ex-Ukranian, EU leaders validate Putin’s special op

Dmitry Peskov noted that the issue on providing military aid to Donbass in the eight years before the start of the operation was not discussed

MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. The revelations by former Ukrainian President Pyotr Proshenko, ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande about the Minsk Agreements prove that Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a special military operation was right, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"We know that Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande have confirmed that for them - which means that for Ukraine, Germany and France, too, - the Minsk Agreements were nothing but a smokescreen to cover their intentions to prepare Ukraine to resolve the Donbass issue by force. It once again confirms that Putin was right when he decided to launch a special military operation to save the people who live in Donbass," the Kremlin spokesman noted.

When asked if Russia had considered providing military aid to Donbass in the eight years before the start of the operation, Peskov answered in the negative. "No, this issue wasn’t discussed. We definitely were keeping a close eye on the developments in Ukraine and we saw Ukraine’s ongoing military buildup, we saw Ukraine’s preparations to use force to resolve the Donbass issue, which would have destroyed the Minsk Agreements that existed back then but are a thing of the past now," Peskov added.

Poroshenko said earlier that the Minsk Agreements, signed in 2015, had made it possible to ready the Armed Forces of Ukraine and establish an international coalition against Russia. Last December, ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with the Die Zeit newspaper divulged that the Minsk accords were "an attempt to buy Ukraine time to become stronger." According to her, "it was clear to everyone" that the conflict had been frozen and the issue had not been resolved, "but it provided precious time to Ukraine." Hollande, who also took part in the discussions of the Package of Measures on the implementation of the Minsk accords in 2015, later confirmed Merkel’s statement.

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