PARIS, December 31. /TASS/. Ex-French President Francois Hollande’s admission that the Minsk Accords were used to give Kiev and Western countries a break and beef up the Ukrainian army only confirms assertions by the Russian leadership on the West’s dishonesty and undermines its global reputation, leader of France’s Popular Republican Union Francois Asselineau told a TASS correspondent.

"For Hollande, it was strange to make such a statement because it <...> presents Western countries as liars. And, therefore, nobody can trust them. And this adds weight to Putin’s remarks when he was talking about the empire of lies as represented by the West," the politician said.

He stressed that such "incredible" revelations "may have quite tangible consequences such as the conflict’s escalation".

Asselineau reiterated the West’s unkept promise not to expand NATO eastward. "In reality, since 1989, the US and NATO have been waging war against Russia and it is underway to this day," the politician said.

According to him, the current conflict will decide the fate of the future world order - whether it will be led by the West under Washington’s guidance or "the diversity of civilizations and nations with the multinational order" will prevail. "Personally, I am confident that the aspiration for the freedom and diversity of countries corresponds to what Russia together with China are defending," he said, adding that he was viewing the state of Western countries as increasingly difficult. "More countries begin to dislike the West while our economic situation is getting worse over economic sanctions against Russia which played against us," the French politician emphasized.

Hollande on Minsk Accords

On Friday, Hollande who participated in coordinating the set of measures on implementing the Minsk Accords in 2015 confirmed the statements made by ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel that these agreements were needed to give Kiev time to prepare for an armed conflict. According to the LPR’s former ambassador to Russia Rodion Miroshnik, France was not going to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2202 upholding the implementation of the Minsk Accords even though the country’s permanent representative at the Security Council voted for it.

In an interview with the Zeit newspaper published on December 7, Merkel said that the Minsk Agreements were "an attempt to give time to Ukraine. It also used this time to become stronger as can be seen today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the modern Ukraine." According to the politician, "it was clear to everyone" that the conflict had stalled and the problem had not been resolved "yet this was precisely what gave Ukraine invaluable time." She expressed doubt that at that time NATO states would have been able to support Kiev to the extent that they do now. Russian President Vladimir Putin later said that her remarks were absolutely unexpected and disappointing.