The Minsk Agreements Tried to Create Peace Between Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky Said He Never Planned to Honor Them
By Pedro L. Gonzalez
The Ukrainian president also accused the West of being insufficiently supportive of Ukraine, despite billions of dollars in aid committed before and after Russia invaded last year.
The Alley of Angels is a memorial nestled amid trees and winding gray stone walkways in Donetsk. Visitors are greeted by an arch that features roses forged from fragments of mines and grenades interwoven with ammunition casings, representing some of the weapons that have taken the lives of children during the Donbas War in the eastern part of Ukraine.
The site was built in 2015, the year after a color revolution fomented regime change in the country, triggering clashes between government forces and separatists in the Donbas who declared independence from Kiev. It was the proxy war before the proxy war, with U.S.-backed troops battling Russian-backed forces. Fighting there had already killed at least 14,000 people before President Vladimir Putin took Russia across the Rubicon last February.
There were efforts to establish a ceasefire and, ultimately, peace in 2014 and 2015. These were the Minsk agreements, mediated with help from Germany and France. But in an interview with Der Spiegel published on Feb. 9, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he never planned to honor the accords, although he was elected president on the promise of ending the Donbas War. He also accused the West of being insufficiently supportive of Ukraine, despite billions of dollars in aid and matériel committed before and after Russia invaded last year.
