MOSCOW: Russia launched what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine because it felt ‘betrayed’ after its concerns around peace accords between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists were ignored, news agencies quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying on Sunday.

President Vladimir Putin last week bemoaned the failure to implement the Minsk agreements between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine brokered in 2014 and 2015 by Russia, France and Germany.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of violating the deal.

Asked by a journalist whether Russia understood that it was being “deceived” over the Minsk accords, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Over time, of course, it became obvious.

“And, again, President Putin and our other representatives constantly kept saying this,” the TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying. “But this was all ignored by the other participants of the negotiation process.

Putin was asked on Friday about remarks by former German chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the agreements’ sponsors, who told the Zeit magazine in an interview published on Wednesday that the 2014 agreement had been “an attempt to give Ukraine time” — more able to defend itself.

Russian media and politicians have quickly construed this as a betrayal on Merkel’s part.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2022