Russia’s top diplomat to the UN said Friday that the nearly year-long war in Ukraine could have been avoided if leaders in Kyiv enforced the Minsk Agreements, which turned out to be a ruse by the West to buy time to rearm Ukrainians for a future fight.

Vassily Nabenzia, the permanent representative, told the UN Security Council that “everything could have ended differently for Ukraine” if it followed the agreements that he said paved the way for peace by granting special status to Russian speakers in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics.

TRENDPOST: Most Americans know nothing about the historic relationship between Ukraine and Russia, yet they swallow the mainstream media’s soundbite propaganda that this is somehow an unprovoked war “of Russian aggression.”

But those interested in educating themselves are aware that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently admitted that the Minsk agreements were an effective ruse to give Ukraine time to “get stronger” for its next conflict with Russia. (See “MERKEL ADMITS THAT MINSK AGREEMENT WAS A RUSE, RUSSIA CALLS FOR TRIBUNAL” and “GERMANY’S MERKEL MAKES IT CLEAR: MINSK AGREEMENT VIOLATED.”)

During the 2014 uprising, some 97 percent of the citizens of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea voted to leave Ukraine for integration of the region into the Russian Federation. 

In 2014, Ukraine and these separatists agreed to the 12-point Minsk Agreement that called for a ceasefire in the region. In February 2015, the Minsk II Agreement, created by France and Germany, also called for a ceasefire, which Ukraine violated. 

As we reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged his country’s eight-year conflict in the Donbas between Russian separatists that resulted in the death of over 14,000 people in the Donbas region…which Russian President Vladimir Putin cited before the February invasion. 

And as we noted, just days prior to the Russian invasion, Putin signed friendship treaties with the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in the region. He also signed the presidential decree recognizing the independence of these separatist regions before the war.

Nebenzia said it is obvious that France, Germany, and Ukraine never had any intention to uphold the agreement that served as nothing more than a “smokescreen behind which they secretly armed Ukraine in order to set it against Russia.”

Russia’s Roadmap to Peace

Russia said a ceasefire would require Kyiv to allow separatist authorities to form their own central government. Ukraine said it will never allow Moscow to have a de facto veto on foreign policy decisions. 

There is no indication that Russia or Ukraine are seriously considering peace negotiations, but Nebenzia laid out key steps that need to be taken.

He said an end will come when Ukraine is no longer a threat and Kyiv stops “discriminating against Russian-speaking Ukrainians.”

“If this result can be achieved through negotiations, we stand ready for this scenario,” he said. “If not, then our tasks will be achieved by military means.”

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has documented how there can be no talk of peace in Ukraine because the U.S. has a willing army to square off against Vladimir Putin. 

It has been a career goal of Antony Blinken, his boss Victoria Nuland, and other Russia-haters in the White House to destroy Putin so they can install a pro-U.S. stooge inside the Kremlin. (See “U.S. MILITARY HEAD MILLEY CHANGES HIS TUNE AFTER CRITICIZED FOR CALLING FOR KYIV TO NEGOTIATE, NOW SAYS RUSSIA LOST” and “PUTIN DIGS IN, CALLS UKRAINE WAR A ‘LONG PROCESS,’ SAYS WEST USING UKRAINIANS AS CANNON FODDER.”)