Merkel: Putin ended talks in Minsk a year ago
Information about Russia's preparations for a war in Ukraine came from the US intelligence services in October 2021. At the same time, the Normandy format has not worked for a year, said ex-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, whose words are quoted by the Phoenix TV channel. – The President of Russia, in principle, finished with them (negotiations in Minsk, – ed.) more when the capital of Belarus was the last platform where we could still talk about the situation in the Donbass,” Merkel emphasized. She noted that a possible escalation of the conflict was discussed even during her tenure as chancellor. And “it was clear that the situation was very serious.” – I followed this while still in office. I think at the latest at the G20 summit in Rome at the end of October (2021), the US services already had information about this, and since that time we have been talking about it a lot, Merkel said. The ex-chancellor added that she closely followed the visit of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Moscow on February 15, and “it was clear that something bad was happening.” After the start of the war, Merkel for a long time time was silent. However, on the 99th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she called it a “barbaric war.”
