Minsk agreements failure led to Ukraine war: Kremlin spokesman

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia's concerns about the failure of the Minsk agreements drove it to launch a special operation in Ukraine.

Peskov was speaking in an interview with Russian television channel Rossiya-1 on Sunday when asked whether Moscow understood that it was deceived regarding Minsk-2.

"Of course, it became obvious as time passed. And again, President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin and other our representatives were constantly stating it," he said.

"But all this was ignored by other participants of the negotiations process. This all foreran the special military operation [in Ukraine]," Peskov added.

He emphasized that Kiev had ignored the peace accords with pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine.

On Friday, the Russian president also deplored the failure to implement the terms of the Minsk deals, aimed at ending the war in the eastern Donbas region.

Earlier this week, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the agreement had been an attempt to give Ukraine time to become stronger against Russia.

The peace deals, signed in 2014 and 2015, were brokered by Russia, France and Germany.

MG