MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has launched what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing its concerns about peace deals between Kiev and Russian-backed separatists.
President Vladimir Putin this week lamented the failure to implement the Minsk Accords — ceasefire and constitutional reform agreements between Kiev and Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine that Russia, France and Germany brokered in 2014 and 2015, at the start of the conflict with Ukraine. .
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of violating the agreement.
Asked by a reporter whether Russia understands that it was “deceived” about the Minsk agreements, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Over time, of course it became clear.
“And again, President Putin and our other representatives have been repeating this constantly,” Peskov was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying. “But all this was ignored by the other participants in the negotiation process.
“This is all exactly the prelude to a special military operation.”
Putin was asked on Friday about comments by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the sponsors of the two accords, who told Zeit magazine in an interview published on Wednesday that the 2014 agreement was “an attempt to buy Ukraine time” — which it did. He used to become more able to defend himself.
This was quickly interpreted by the Russian media and politicians as a betrayal on Merkel’s part.
Reporting by Reuters. Editing by Raisa Kasuluski
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