German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel (Bundesregierung)

The Minsk accords were signed to "give Ukraine time" to strengthen itself, according to ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was in office from 2005 to 2021, in an interview published on Wednesday in the Zeit newspaper.

Merkel said "The 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give time to Ukraine. It also used this time to become stronger as can be seen today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the modern Ukraine."

According to her, "it was clear to everyone" that the conflict had been put on hold, noting that the issue had not been settled, "yet this was what gave Ukraine invaluable time."

She voiced doubt that NATO states could not have supported Kiev to the level that they do today at the time.

Merkel was the German chancellor when Ukraine's state coup happened in 2014, and the Minsk accords on resolving the Donbass war were signed with her contribution.

Previously, in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, Merkel discussed her final encounters with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that during the ex-Chancellor's farewell visit to Moscow in August 2021 she felt “in terms of power politics, you’re done,” adding that “for Putin, only power counts.”

She further explained that the fact that Putin brought Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov along with him to this final visit made it clear to Merkel that her power has crumbled, given the fact that in the past their meetings were “often in private.”