François Hollande talks with a Kyiv Independent contributor in Paris, France, on Dec. 16, 2022. (Théo Prouvost)
TASS: Hollande confirms Merkel’s remark Minsk agreements let Kiev build up military muscle
While commenting on the prospects for negotiations in the current conflict, France’s former president said that "for a dialogue to be fruitful, it must be based on a balance of power"
PARIS, December 30. /TASS/. France’s former president, Francois Hollande, who participated in attempts to settle the conflict in Donbass and in shaping the Minsk agreements in 2015 has confirmed the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement to the effect the agreements were needed for the sole purpose of letting Kiev gain time and build up military muscle for another conflict.
"Yes, Angela Merkel is right on this point," he told the Kiev Independent media outlet, while commenting on Merkel’s remark that the Minsk agreements allowed Kiev to gain time, but by no means prevented further hostilities in the Donbass.
"Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture. Indeed, the Ukrainian army was completely different from that of 2014. It was better trained and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements to have given the Ukrainian army this opportunity."
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Here is the interview with the Kyiv Independent where former French President Hollande admits that the Minsk agreement gave time for Ukraine to build-up its military forces .... Hollande: ‘There will only be a way out of the conflict when Russia fails on the ground’ (Kyiv Independent).
Wow! Was I ever fooled.
I believed that the Minsk agreements were a genuine and sincere effort from the West to find a resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and I gave it my full support in this blog and with all of my friends and contacts in Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
I was wrong.
With former German Chancellor Merkel, former Ukraine President Poroshenko, and now former French President Hollande all admitting that the Minsk agreements were just an excuse to buy time to build-up Ukraine's military forces to continue the war and pursue a military defeat of the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine .... sighhhh .... this all but destroys any chance that Moscow will agree to any proposal from the West to end the war in Ukraine.
What can I now say. This war and the incredible destruction and death it is causing could have all been avoided if these "leaders" were sincere in following up on implementing the agreements that they made in Minsk.
Update: Could not have said it any better .... Confessions by Hollande and Merkel are ‘formalization of betrayal’ – top Russian senator (RT).
22 comments:
Has it occurred to you that neither side was sincere?
Putin is a trained lawyer. Never once did he take anything to court. Biden and Obama have law degrees too., but between you me and a tree, Biden could not practice and it is doubtful Bathhouse could either.
Putin is the smarter of the three, but maybe not near smart enough.
You don't go killing a million people, because Russian is not an official government language for Eastern Ukraine.
Barack Obama has his finger prints all over this.His long record of Chinese appeasement, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Ukraine failures ranks right up there for worst in history. Topped only by his VP the demented Biden. Obama was fully competent mentally and physically. Much worse.
My tooth hurts this morning. I blame Obama and the Democrats.
Regardless of how bad of leaders playboy Hollande and traitor Merkel are, they made the right decision to fob off Putin.
Putin was not serious. He was looking for a rest and reload too. WNU can be in high dudgeon until kingdom come, but Putin was never serious about Minsk except as a rest and reload.
A lot of the separatists were from Russia. So it was not so home grown. A lot of the separatist leaders could not propose independent countries. If they did, they were waxed by the Russians.
Many independence movements have significant outside help. The Americans did. Except the Americans showed they were significant before they got outside help. More often than not, when there is secession there is outside help. Russia helped Donetsk and Luhansk a lot from the start. They were the prime movers of the whole thing.
So hold the outrage and pass the mayo.
Little boy waiting for the tooth fairy,
The Minsk Accords were signed 2014. Who was the US Prez and VP in2014?
Barrack Obama and side kick, hack pol Biden.
In a June 2021 interview, Vladislav Surkov, Putin's aide for Ukraine policy from 2013 to 2020, who was removed from his role in February 2020, said that Ukraine "can be reformed as a confederation, with a lot of freedom for the regions to decide things by themselves".
Russia can be reformed as a confederation.
Yip amazingly these people sleep just fine with the blood of hundreds of 1000s already dead millions displaced and homeless and a country basically in ruins that will take a lifetime to get back on its feet they have no problem whatsoever hopefully sanity will prevail and end this needless destruction asap HOPING AND PRAYING
If Russia did to the US, what it has done since 2004 or before, the US would have been at war already with Russia 10 or 15 years ago.
The Russians poisoned an Ukrainian president. If the Russians had poisoned an American president, there would have been war.
what decade did the Russians no fuck with Ukraine? The 90s?
If that is true, it is only due to lack of resources and a being busy elsewhere not from a lack of desire.
You all do not understand. The revelation that the minsk agreements were all b.s. is the stake in the heart of the vampire. The honor of the West is dead. Anyone trusting the USA and thier nato pawns now and for the foreseeable future will be considered a fool.
This is world wide. What do you think the Indians , Chinese and other nations see now? A repeat of the Japanese negotiations before the attack on pearl harbor...the japs were planing war the whole time.
YES, a thug attitude and approach to diplomacy with no hesitation to lie or make false statements.
This is the New "Rules based order" staring at you in the face. Consider, if these bastards do this on the macro level, do you think for one minute they would not hesitate to do it at the micro ( your) level?
The second effect is this. The right wing leadership of Russia will now become more determined to fight to the bitter end. And who would not, considering any peace deal you make with the other side is just a piece of paper.
The hole the necons dug for us all just got deeper.
You have to ask also, why are these senior leaders revealing this information now? They could have kept this all a secret , but they did not... hmmmmm?
I blame Biden and Obama for Trump's taxes showing he has a financial interests in over 5 foreign nations and for this too:
NBC News previously reported that one of the FBI’s own confidential sources informed the bureau on the day that Trump sent his Dec. 19, 2020, “will be wild” tweet about Jan. 6 that far-right groups saw it as a “call to arms.” The FBI received numerous tips about the potential for violence on Jan. 6, including from the son of a Texas man who ultimately came to the Capitol with a gun, and the bureau briefed other law enforcement entities about threats, including intelligence that suggested the Oath Keepers had set up armed "quick reaction forces" in Virginia that were set to come into D.C. at Trump's command.
For 12:12
It will be biblical
“The Russians have decided there is no way to negotiate an end to this. No one will negotiate in good faith; therefore we must crush the enemy. And that’s what’s coming.” Colonel Douglas MacGregor (9:35 minute)
Of course there is the distinct possibility that both Merkel and Hollande are lying in an attempt to save their reputation in the West as not being appeasers willing to throw Ukraine to the lions. Stalin's pact with Hitler suddenly became him "buying time" to build up the Red Army after June 22, 1941. It was complete BS, but it sounded much better, didn't it? There is a non-trivial chance this is just spin.
WNU Editor's spin on the Mink Accords is that Putin and Russia was sincere in wanting to protect certain rights of the ethnic Russian minority in Ukraine. Anyone else covering the accords have shown that Putin merely wanted to use them as a pretext to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty and gobble it up in little tiny bits, as the Russian interpretation of the accords would essentially destroy Ukraine's central government from exercising any control over its regions. WNU Editor has never even mentioned this interpretation to my knowledge.
While I don't believe either Merkel or Hollande are being honest about their intentions, I do agree that Poroshenko understood from the beginning about Russia's true intentions and used the accord merely to buy time for Ukraine to rebuild. Analysts like Brian Whitmore at the Power Vertical podcast was pointing out how Poroshenko was interpreting Minsk this way years ago.
(BTW, I originally began reading this blog because I wanted a different perspective on the Russo-Ukraine crisis. He seemed to discount the potential of ethnic Russians en masse betraying Ukraine and wanting to join Russia - his perspective was based on his years spent in Odessa. I was not so sure myself and when I discovered this blog, I began following it because WNU Editor's position was basically everyone was pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine. I did not know who to believe. But by now it was clear Whitmore is like a B- while WNU Editor is a D+ on their Ukraine analysis. I now only read this blog for non-Russian news and to see how an intelligent pro-Russian propagandist is spinning things.)
I find it hilarious all the Russian trolls clutching their pearls and declaring this means the West has no honor and can no longer be counted to implement anything promised! (How can Herr Hitler ever trust that warmonger Churchill! He is just forcing the Fuhrer to destroy Britain which everyone knows from Mein Kampf he does not want to do!) News for you gentlemen, this has been the West's problem with Russia and China for decades now.
Chris
I have interests in a foreign nations directly and thru 401K.
I would think that anyone with 30 million or more has investments in foreign nations.
Baby hunter Biden had or has interests in Ukraine and china and he was worth less than 50 million. So how is it strange or surprising that Trump has interest in 5 foreign nations.
Love how you use the words "foreign nation" as a pejorative. you realize how many American, British, Irish, Canadian and Austalian actors have financial interests in "foreign nations".
Nazi sympathizers love to say "neither side wanted Minsk, they both just wanted to buy time for territorial conquest" when the truth is Donetsk and Lugansk submitted documents to join the Russian Federation in 2014 and Putin rejected it categorically and forced them to negotiate to stay within Ukraine. Nazi historical revisionism is the only means by which their ideology makes any sense.
For 2:05
You stated
" Anyone else covering the accords have shown that Putin merely wanted to use them as a pretext to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty and gobble it up in little tiny bits, as the Russian interpretation of the accords would essentially destroy Ukraine's central government from exercising any control over its regions.
Really? The accords were not originally a Russian initiated action, but one of the French and krauts.
"Anyone else covering the accords". ....this is a bs statement. Who? Billy Kristol, The liars in DC? Defend your premise. Who are you speaking of..The Atlantic? The NYT?
In 2015 the ukies started an offensive to retake the Donbas and got hammered. The accords provided them time to re-group. Where did you get the idea that Putin wanted to use them as a pretext to destroy the Ukraine?
That statement has no basis in fact.
As for pearl clutching, that has your name all over it.
Trying to justify the west's actions by slandering the Russians does not grant legitimization of what the West did in this case.
Bottom line, They lied and negotiated in Bad faith. What they did was slimy and despicable.
If You think that is ok, then you have the morals of a slime ball. Sorry, but that is just the way it is.
It is the hard right vs the easy wrong.
And anyone who justifies this crap is definitely in the easy wrong category.
This is just what the Japs did to the US at Pearl harbor. No different.
The fact is, that the west has no honor and cannot be trusted . They are illegitimate slime balls. Not worthy of any type of consideration.
And you better believe that the Chinese have noted this.
The French are 2 faced. They forbade the teaching of German in Alsace-Lorraine for the longest time. The Alsatian dialect is or was is very close to Swabian although a speaker of standard German would have difficulties with either.
They have many people in the UN all flustered and concerned over disappearing languages. Have not seen a lot of concern over European dialects or languages. Funny that.
Ha! Gotta love the direct links to TASS (Russian news source) and the WNU feint shock and disappointment.
One needs to read the original translated interviews from both Hollande and Merkel as I have, something that the editor clearly didn't or if he did, it didn't affect his inherent biases.
It's quite clear in the original interviews what they say and mean and what most of us come to know;
Putin never wanted the
Minsk agreements and never cared for them and as a result, they became a nessary component to delay Russian aggression.
Apparently the WNU firmly and bizarrely believes that Russia was abiding by the agreement even as they continued a proxy war in Donbass.
How are you able to function after rimming Putin's ass?
You cannot negotiate with self proclaimed liars. The militaries will now settle the old festering Eastern European ethnic conflicts, kept nurtured and alive in no small part by operation gladio.
Honeybuns,
Keep you facts straight.
"Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA"
The Banderites were one of those factions kept on simmer by the CIA, and there are a lot more like them spread across the region.
Honeybuns.
Honeybuns, I would be worried, if I were you. The Russian poobahs do not look kindly on failure. Keep failing and they will make you drag queen ready.
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