The claim

In an interview, Angela Merkel is said to have admitted that the USA and NATO had been planning a war in Ukraine against Russia for a long time.

Our conclusion

In two recent interviews, Merkel simply described that the Minsk Agreement in 2014 and 2015 bought time for Ukraine to be able to defend itself against a possible attack by Russia, which a pro-Russian side interpreted as a planned attack on Russia.

Pro-Russian sides like to claim that Ukraine provoked Russia's attack and that the USA and NATO helped. Russia would only defend itself against a threatened attack, which is why Putin also spoke of “demilitarizing” the country. Merkel is said to have admitted this plan in an interview - but that is not clear from the interview at all!

The claim

In recent days, several posts on Twitter and Facebook have claimed that Merkel herself admitted in an interview that the US and NATO only used the Minsk Agreement in 2014 and 2015 to prepare Ukraine for war against Russia.

The claim was triggered by an English-language article on the telegra.ph site (archived HERE ), which in turn is a copy of an article on the “Strategic Culture Foundation” site (archived HERE ).

Important to know: The “Strategic Culture Foundation” site is a well-known Russian think tank headed by Yuri Profokiew, a former chairman of the Moscow Communist Party and a member of the Soviet Politburo.

The orientation and therefore many of the articles there are extremely right-wing, promote Russian propaganda and conspiracy myths and are completely non-transparent. The site cannot therefore be classified as credible .

The article claims that the war in Ukraine has been prepared by the West for almost a decade, if not longer, and that Russia is not to blame. In a Spiegel interview (which only apparently linked), Merkel admitted that the Minsk Agreement only bought time to prepare Ukraine for war against Russia.

In German, the claim is also repeated in an article (archived HERE ): “ Now Merkel confirms that NATO wanted war from the start, but needed time for military preparation .”

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What was the Minsk Agreement?

In spring 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula. At the same time, the fighting between pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine was simmering, which is why the first Minsk Agreement was agreed in September 2014 (Minsk I), which was broken by both sides after just a few weeks. That's why Minsk II was in February 2015 , which is now commonly referred to as the Minsk Agreement.

The Minsk Agreement was about de-escalation and pacification of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. It involved then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, then-French President François Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Specifically, it was about an immediate ceasefire in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, withdrawal of heavy weapons on both sides, withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries and troops from eastern Ukraine, restoration of full control by Ukraine over the Ukrainian-Russian state border and Ukrainian constitutional reform , which aims to grant special status to areas in Donbass controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

In short: Donetsk and Luhansk should continue to belong to Ukraine, but should be given special status that would allow them to trade with Russia. The border with Russia should be controlled by Ukraine (with a security zone monitored by the OSCE), no more heavy weapons in eastern Ukraine, no fighting.

However, just a few days later, the Minsk Agreement was broken by pro-Russian separatists by capturing the strategically important city of Debaltseve in Donetsk. constantly broken by both sides .

What did Merkel say in the interview?

The interview mentioned again and again (and incorrectly linked in the original article by “Strategic Culture Foundation”) was with Der Spiegel, was published in November 2022 and can be HERE .

In the following passages from the Spiegel article, Merkel talks about the Minsk Agreement and the situation in Ukraine at the time:

On page 48:

“She believes that, both then and later, in the Minsk negotiations, she bought time that Ukraine could use to better resist a Russian attack. It is a stronger, more defensive country now. At that time, she is sure, she would have been overrun by Putin’s troops.”

On page 51:

“Even with Obama, she talked less about Russia than she thought. And even less about Germany. »He's been out of office longer than me, of course. I have the impression that we agree on Putin," she says. "After Russia's annexation of Crimea, we tried everything to prevent further Russian attacks on Ukraine and coordinated our sanctions in detail."

Merkel also conducted an interview with “Zeit”, which was published in December 2022 (see HERE ). Maybe she mentions a planned war against Russia there? Let's see!

“Or let’s look at my policy regarding Russia and Ukraine. I come to the conclusion that I made the decisions I made back then in a way that is understandable to me today. It was an attempt to prevent just such a war.”

“And the 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time. She also used this time to become stronger, as you can see today. The Ukraine of 2014/15 is not the Ukraine of today. As we saw in the battle for Debaltseve in early 2015, Putin could have easily overrun them back then. And I very much doubt that the NATO countries could have done as much back then as they do now to help Ukraine.”

“It was clear to all of us that this was a frozen conflict, that the problem had not been solved, but that is exactly what gave Ukraine valuable time.”

Merkel also points out that it was a mistake to spend only two percent of the respective gross domestic product on defense in the defense budget at the time, but that not enough was done with pure deterrence through higher defense measures.

“NATO has also stationed troops in the Baltics to show that we are ready for defense as NATO. […] But we too should have reacted more quickly to Russia’s aggressiveness.”

Not a word about a planned war against Russia!

In several passages in two recent interviews, Merkel simply emphasized that the Minsk Agreement also created time for Ukraine to be prepared against an unavoidable attack by Russia on Ukraine at some point. She herself called it a “ frozen conflict ”.

There is no indication in any of the interviews that Ukraine was planning a war against Russia with the help of NATO and the USA. Unless you look at it from a pro-Russian perspective: “ The country that actually belongs to us wants to defend itself if we want to take it rightfully, that is aggression against me!”

Or to explain it very simply: The school bully sees it as an attack against him because his victim has prepared to defend himself.

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