UNITED NATIONS, February 17. /TASS/. Western countries were using the Minsk agreement to prepare Kiev for war against Russia for the sake of their own geopolitical interests, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Friday.

"I would like to ask our former Western partners, who, by force of habit, are now going to recite mantras about how Russia is to blame for everything, to look up from their paperwork and answer just one simple question. How is it that after repeating here year after year that you support the Minsk process, signing documents with us, you had your fingers crossed behind your back and knew perfectly well that for you the Minsk process was only a smokescreen to rearm the Kiev regime and prepare it for war against Russia for the sake of your own geopolitical interests?" he said at a Russian-initiated meeting of the UN Security Council on the anniversary of the Minsk agreements.

"The recent revelations of [French ex-President] Francois Hollande, [German ex-Chancellor] Angela Merkel and [former British PM] Boris Johnson leave no doubt that the West was only simulating the constructive process," he said. "NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement that the alliance has been preparing for war with Russia exposes a plan for geopolitical containment and weakening of our country, which it is seeking to implement before our eyes."

According to the Russian diplomat, the revelations of Ukraine’s former and incumbent presidents, Pyotr Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky, say much about this "criminal scheme." "The crime is obvious, the motive is clear. The method is to bog the international community down in absurd allegations that it is Russia, which, as you know, is not even mentioned in the Minsk agreements, that is not fulfilling them," Nebenzya stressed.