Angela Merkel Admits: The West Never Sought a Peaceful Solution for Ukraine

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel revealed in an interview with Die Zeit published Dec. 7 that the West’s strategy towards Moscow, ever since 2014, has been to prepare Ukraine for war against Russia: “The 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time. It also used that time to get stronger, as can be seen today. Ukraine of 2014/15 is not the modern Ukraine.” Furthermore, the West should have intervened to stop “Russia’s aggressiveness” much earlier. Her remarks demonstrate that NATO’s mantra about an “unprovoked” intervention by the Russians is deliberately fraudulent.

A few weeks ago, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had already admitted that Kiev’s goal in signing the Minsk agreements, which were designed to put an end to the killing in the Donbass and to negotiate autonomy, was to “delay the war, to secure eight years to restore economic growth and create powerful armed forces”. But that France and Germany, which had mediated the accords, were also duplicitous, is strategically explosive.

Russian President Putin was asked about the former Chancellor’s remarks at a Dec. 10 press conference on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union Summit. “Frankly speaking”, he answered, “I did not expect to hear this from a former Federal Chancellor, because I’ve always proceeded from the assumption that the leaders of Germany were sincere with us.” But it shows, he continued, that Russia “was right” to launch the special military operation. Despite the intention of the Ukrainians, he said “I was still hoping that other participants [Germany and France] in this process were sincere with us. It appears they were deceiving us as well. The only purpose was to pump arms into Ukraine and get it ready for hostilities…. Perhaps we should have started all this earlier, but we still simply hoped to come to terms under these Minsk Agreements.”

This leads to the question of trust, which was “already close to zero” before Angela Merkel’s statements. “How can there be negotiations? What can be negotiated? Are there any guarantees? We’re ready for agreements; we’re open, but this makes us stop to think about who we are dealing with.”

Indeed, quite irrespective of Moscow’s position, NATO’s justification for waging a proxy war on Russia and urging President Zelensky to refuse to negotiate, is crumbling as the truth comes out. So who can mediate at this point? The idea had been floated over the past weeks that Angela Merkel might be able to play such a role, but she has discredited herself completely, for whatever reasons. This plays into the hands of the British strategy consisting of staging provocations to sabotage any negotiated settlement. The one option which is available is the offer by the Vatican to serve as a venue for peace talks.