Russia's 'invasion and occupation' of Ukrainian territory.

[tsupermario]

While Russia’s role in arming separatist rebels and sending in ground forces to support the fighting has been widely documented by Western governments and investigative journalists, Moscow continues to deny its involvement in the conflict. “The No. 1 thing is that Russia refuses to acknowledge that it is a party to the Minsk agreements, and that it has obligations under the Minsk agreements, which it has never fulfilled,” Volker said. Despite being a signatory to the deal, Moscow insists that it’s up to the Ukrainian government and separatist leaders in the east to resolve the standoff.

The deal also does not include any guidance on the sequence in which the 13 points within it should be carried out. Moscow has insisted that local elections be held in the breakaway regions first, and that the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics be granted political autonomy. Ukrainian officials fear that this would cement Moscow’s leverage over the region, undermine the country’s sovereignty, and kneecap its aspirations of joining NATO or the European Union. Moscow has followed a similar model in Georgia, where it has sent troops to the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and recognized their independence.

Ukraine insists on regaining full control over its borders and for foreign fighters to withdraw before any elections are held in the Donbass. Any move by Kyiv to devolve power to the breakaway regions at this stage would likely be deeply unpopular and seen as capitulation to Moscow.
…

In short, because there are few other viable options for a path to peace. “Everybody keeps clinging to the Minsk agreements because at least they say, with Russia’s signature attached, that they respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. So, nobody wants to give that up,” Volker said.

Despite flaws in the deal, Ukraine has passed legislation to lay the groundwork to implement its obligations under the Minsk agreement. U.S. officials continue to see it as the best path forward and have urged Moscow to fulfill its obligations under the deal. “I think if you look back over the requirements established in the Minsk agreements, three agreements over the course of several months, it is a fair assessment to say that Ukraine has sought to move forward on most if not all of them, while Russia has made good on virtually none of its obligations under Minsk,” Blinken said earlier this month.

Andrii Zagorodniuk, Ukraine’s former minister of defense, said that he considered statements by Russian officials, urging the United States to pressure Ukraine to implement the Minsk agreement, to be part of a Russian disinformation play. “It creates the false assumption that whatever was agreed about before, is not delivered by Ukraine,” he said. “It just moves the responsibility from Russia for starting all of that to Ukraine. And that is exactly what they want to do.”

Ukraine and Russia's Minsk Agreement Is a Problematic Peace Plan

[uls]

translation: "now let's start a war in the east asian theater"

[tsupermario]

Putin says Minsk accords, which were meant to end war in eastern Ukraine, no longer exist

Natalie Musumeci and John Haltiwanger Feb 22, 2022, 12:55 PM

Alexei Nikolsky/Associated Press

Putin on Tuesday said that the Minsk accords "do not exist now."

The accords were ceasefire agreements meant to end fighting in eastern Ukraine.

By recognizing separatist territories as independent, Putin effectively scrapped the accords.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that the Minsk peace agreements — which sought to end the war in eastern Ukraine — no longer "exist," Russian state media reported.

"The Minsk agreements do not exist now," he said, according to a translation from AFP, one day after he formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered troops there.

The Russian president on Monday signed a decree recognizing the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

"We signed agreements yesterday, and in these agreements with both the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic there are relevant clauses that say that we will provide these republics with appropriate, including military assistance," Putin said on Tuesday, according to Russian state media.

[uls]

zel laughing at putin (2019)

https://twitter.com/BrettHar123/stat...27783644819456


kunwari may agreement

niloloko lang nila si putin

they were never gonna follow it

[tsupermario]

russian playbook

After the 2008 war and subsequent Russian military occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Russian government, along with four other UN member states, considers the territories sovereign independent states: the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia. Before Russian occupation, the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia did not completely control their respectively claimed territories. Russian military bases were established in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia does not allow the European Union Monitoring Mission to enter either Abkhazia or South Ossetia. Russia has signed agreements with the de facto civilian administrations of both territories to integrate them militarily and economically into Russia. Russian troops have started the process of demarcation (also known as "borderisation") along, and allegedly beyond, the border between the rest of Georgia and the self-declared Republic of South Ossetia.

Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia are widely recognized as integral parts of Georgia and together represent 20% of Georgia's internationally recognized territory. The Georgian "Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia", adopted in 2008, criminalizes and prosecutes entry into Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the Russian side without special permission and allows only economic activity in the two territories that are in accordance with it. Georgia and most other members of the international community including the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Israel, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Ukraine, the European Union, OSCE, and Council of Europe as well as the United Nations have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupied territories and have condemned the Russian military presence and actions there.

[uls]

after what merkel revealed

wala na kwenta ang agreements



tapos sasabihin mag negotiate to end this war

can russia trust the west again?

[tsupermario]

Dutch prosecutors said in their summary of findings that “there are strong indications that the Russian president decided on supplying” a Buk missile system to Ukrainian separatists. A Buk system was used to bring down MH17 on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
…

Russia has always denied any involvement in the downing of MH17.

The announcement comes nearly three months after a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel for their roles in shooting down the Boeing 777 and killing all 298 people on board on July 17, 2014. One Russian was acquitted by the court.
…

The convictions and the court’s finding that the surface-to-air Buk missile that blew the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight out of the sky came from a Russian military base were seen as a clear indication that Moscow had a role in the tragedy. Russia has always denied involvement. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court in November of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.

But the November convictions held that Moscow was in overall control in 2014 over the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area of eastern Ukraine where the missile was launched. The Buk missile system came from the Russian military’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in the city of Kursk.

'Strong Indications' Putin Supplied Missile That Downed MH17 Flight, Investigators Say

Putin '''Supplied''' Missile That Shot Down MH17: Investigators | Time

[tsupermario]

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her legacy on Ukraine on Tuesday in her first major interview since leaving office.
She refused to apologize for her policies towards Moscow, but stressed there was no justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
"It's an objective breach of all international laws and of everything that allows us in Europe to live in peace at all. If we start going back through the centuries and arguing over which bit of territory should belong to whom, then we will only have war. That's not an option whatsoever."

Merkel on Putin
The former chancellor insisted she had not been naive in her dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Diplomacy isn't wrong just because it hasn't worked," she said. However, she never believed he could be won over by trade promises. "Military deterrence is the only language he understands," she said.
Merkel recalled a 2007 summit in the Russian resort of Sochi. Knowing Merkel's dislike of dogs, Putin famously encouraged his own dog to approach the German chancellor.
Putin told her that the collapse of the Soviet Union had been "the worst event of the 20th century." Merkel replied that for her, as someone who grew up in communist East Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall meant she could live her life in freedom.
It was obvious already, she said, that there was a "great discrepancy."
Putin, she said, "hated" the Western model of democracy and wanted to "destroy" the European Union.

Merkel on opposition to Ukraine joining NATO
Merkel defended her opposition to Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO in 2008. At the time, NATO pledged that the two countries would join at some point in the future, but declined to trigger the "membership action plan" to let them join the alliance within five to 10 years.
…

"President Zelenskyy is bravely fighting against corruption, but at the time, Ukraine really was a country governed by oligarchs, and so there you can't just say 'ok tomorrow we'll take them into NATO,'" she said.
"It was not the Ukraine that we know from today. It was a Ukraine that was very, very divided politically," she said. "It was not a stable democracy. And when you accept a country into a NATO — and the Membership Action Plan is the clear precursor to that — you have to know that we are then prepared to really defend such a country if there is an attack."
"Secondly, I was very sure … that Putin is not going to just let that happen. From his perspective, that would be a declaration of war."

Merkel on the Minsk agreement
Merkel said the Minsk agreement — a 2014 deal she helped broker to ease the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists — while not entirely palatable to the Ukrainians, bought important time for Ukraine.
"This agreement was commended, approved, welcomed by the EU. This agreement has been incorporated into a UN Security Council resolution, so it has the character of international law," she said.
"At the time, it brought calm and gave Ukraine, for example, a lot of time, seven years, to develop into what it is today."
Merkel conceded that there could have been a harsher response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, but that serious steps had been taken. She cited Russia's exclusion from the Group of Eight (Leading Industrial Nations) and NATO's stipulation that members spend 2% of GDP on defense.
By the end of her chancellorship, it was clear that Russia was moving in the direction of conflict, she said.

https://www.dw.com/en/angela-merkel-...acy/a-62052345

[uls]

Angela Merkel opens up on Ukraine, Putin and her legacy – DW – 6/7/222

Merkel said the Minsk agreement — a 2014 deal she helped broker to ease the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists — while not entirely palatable to the Ukrainians, bought important time for Ukraine.

thank you for agreeing

[EQAddict]

Read the entire article rather than just picking up soundbites for your agenda.

Of course Ukraine needed to rearm vs the 800 lb gorilla in the room who had just treacherously (!!!!!!) Annexed Crimea from them.

What..did you expect them to lay down and die so Russia can peacefully roll over them?

Lol.

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