Zelensky asserts Trump’s failure to resolve Donbass conflict

Moscow, May 13 – Volodymyr Zelensky said that during his presidency, Donald Trump did not put an end to the conflict in Donbass.

In April, former US President Donald Trump promised, if he wins the 2024 elections, to resolve the conflict in Ukraine even before entering the White House. He had previously promised that he would be able to stop the bloodshed within 24 hours by contacting Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky.

“I want to remind you that President Trump was president anyway. I had a meeting at that time, I was already president at that time … I’m not sure that he was then deeply immersed in this issue, but nevertheless he did not solve the problem, ”- He said in an interview with Italian media.

As Zelensky pointed out, he’s not sure this was a priority for Trump. “I don’t blame him for anything, but we have the facts,” he added.

A package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements to resolve the conflict in southeastern Ukraine was signed on February 12, 2015 in Minsk. The document, consisting of 13 points, provided, in particular, for a ceasefire in Donbass, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the demarcation line between the Kiev security forces and the militia, as well as other measures for a long-term political settlement of the situation in Donbass. Kyiv systematically violated the Minsk agreements.

Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky admitted in an interview with Spiegel that he told former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that the Minsk agreements are “impossible” and that he does not plan to implement them. Before that, Merkel (who served as German chancellor from 2005 to 2021) said that “the Minsk agreement of 2014 was an attempt to give Ukraine time” to get stronger. In turn, François Hollande, who served as French president from 2012 to 2017, agreed with Merkel that the Minsk agreements gave the Kiev regime time to get stronger. Both of them participated in the Normandy Four summit, which agreed on a set of measures to implement the Minsk agreements. Boris Johnson, during a visit to Kiev in late January, said the Normandy formula for negotiations on Ukraine was a “diplomatic tradition”.