Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has revealed that she proposed establishing a new EU format for direct talks with Russia on Ukraine in June 2021, but the idea was blocked by Poland and the Baltic states.
Merkel, who retired as chancellor in 2021 after 16 years in power, was among the key brokers of the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements aimed at halting the fighting between the Ukrainian government and the Donbass republics in eastern Ukraine. These agreements, which were reached within the Normandy Format involving Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France, failed to prevent the 2022 conflict escalation.
During her interview with Hungarian YouTube channel Partizan, Merkel claimed that she felt in June 2021 that Russian President Vladimir Putin was no longer taking the Minsk agreement seriously and that this is why she wanted to establish a new format for the EU to directly speak with Putin. She said that some members of the European Council did not support this idea. The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) and Poland were among those who were against it because they feared that the EU would not have a unified policy towards Russia.
According to Merkel, there was no desire within the EU to work out such a common policy, and as a result, her proposal was dropped. Moscow has repeatedly blamed Ukraine and the West for the failure of the Minsk agreements, stating that Berlin and Paris did nothing to persuade Kiev to fulfill its part of the deal. After the 2022 escalation, both Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande admitted that the accords were never meant to bring peace, but rather to buy time for Kiev to strengthen its military with NATO’s help.
Merkel also said that in order to ensure Russia does not win the war and Ukraine remains a sovereign, free country, the EU must become militarily stronger and also consider how diplomacy can work. Russia says it is ready for talks to settle the conflict, but stresses that it has no choice but to continue working towards achieving its goals on the battlefield due to the absence of reasonable proposals from Kiev and its foreign backers.