Poroshenko says Minsk agreements partially fulfilled their goal

He stated this in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"Were the Minsk agreements justified? Of course, they were. Have they fulfilled their goal? Partly yes and partly not. The introduction of a Steinmeier formula, taken out of context in the Kremlin wording, certainly weakened Ukraine's position. Why did they [the Minks agreements] not achieve complete success? Due to the absolutely destructive blocking position of Russia. This is why we suggested that a position on peacekeepers be introduced, which was fully agreed with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, except for Russia, that are obliged to act as guarantors of Ukrainian sovereignty as part of the Budapest Memorandum and a transitional phase designed for the implementation of a road map of the Minsk agreements, which describes the timing and sequence of all points of all Minsk agreements," Poroshenko said.

At the same time, analyzing the effect of the Minsk agreements, Poroshenko said that the purpose of these documents was to stop Russian aggression, to stop the advance of regular troops of the Russian army, and this task had been fulfilled.

"From the very beginning, the goal was to disrupt the Kremlin project of Novorossiya or Malorossiya, no matter how they called it, which envisaged the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and the dismemberment of Ukraine. This goal was also achieved," he said.

According to him, it was critically necessary to take the time to build the effective Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"I emphasize, not for the attack, but for the protection of Ukrainian land, so as to substantially increase the cost of the movement of regular units of the Russian Armed Forces on each subsequent meter of our land. And this goal was also achieved. I emphasize again that all three documents of the Minsk agreements were based on the peace plan of President Poroshenko," he said.

Poroshenko said that the formation of a global coalition in support of Ukraine and the demonstration of solidarity around the world with Ukraine was another goal pursued by the Minsk agreements.

"The responsibility for non-compliance with the Minsk agreements was reflected in the application of sanctions by the U.S., G7, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and all others," he said.

At the same time, he stressed that sanctions are not directed against the Russian people, but remain the only tool at the disposal of the world community to motivate Russia to release Ukrainian land from aggression by the Russian army, as well as to free hostages. According to Poroshenko, this is a concrete practical result of the signing and implementation of the Minsk agreements.

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