Putin: The Minsk agreements were not easy for Kyiv and Europe

President Vladimir Putin said the Minsk agreements were not easy for Kyiv and Europe.

The meaning of a number of provisions of the Minsk agreements was that Ukraine’s accession to NATO would give the south-east of the country the right to secede.

MOSCOW, October 1 - RIA Novosti. The Minsk agreements were not easy for Kyiv and Europe, because the meaning of a number of provisions was that Ukraine’s entry into NATO would give the south-east of the country the right to secede, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“As for the Minsk agreements, indeed, they were not easy for both our partners and for Ukraine. This is true. I will not go into details now, but the most important thing is that the meaning of certain provisions was that if Ukraine does join NATO, then the South-East of Ukraine, in fact, has the right to secede from Ukraine,” Putin said at the plenary session of the 23rd annual meeting of the Valdai international discussion club.

According to him, it was precisely this point that “neither the leadership of Ukraine, which ultimately came to power through a coup, nor Western sponsors” liked.

“That’s why they screwed up all the Minsk agreements,” Putin said.

The Valdai International Discussion Club is an association of leading foreign and Russian experts in the field of political science, economics, history and international relations. The club was created in September 2004 on the initiative of the RIA Novosti agency, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and the magazines "Russia in Global Affairs" and Russia Profile. The club owes its name to the location of the first conference, which took place in Veliky Novgorod near Lake Valdai.