UNITED NATIONS, February 17. /TASS/. The UN Security Council will hold a meeting on Friday, February 17, to mark the anniversary of the Minsk agreements collapse, at which it will discuss the reasons why the agreements have not been implemented, sources in the organization told TASS.

"The meeting will be held on Friday, February 17," the source said.

The meeting on the topic of the Minsk agreements was requested by Russia.

Earlier, former Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko said that the Minsk agreements signed in 2015 made it possible to reform the Ukrainian armed forces and form an international coalition against Russia. In an interview with the German newspaper Zeit in December, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed the Minsk agreements as "an attempt to give Ukraine time to become stronger". According to her, "it was clear to everyone" that the conflict was frozen and the problem was not solved, "but this is what gave Ukraine invaluable time". Later, former French President Francois Hollande, who also participated in the negotiation of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements in 2015, confirmed Merkel's words.

The Minsk agreements were supposed to be the basis for a settlement in the Donbass. They were signed on February 12, 2015. However, Kiev delayed the peace process for years and refused to implement them, and later declared the political part of the package unacceptable, as well as a categorical refusal of direct dialogue with the Donbass republics. The agreements were brokered by the OSCE, Russia, Germany, and France.