larry johnson speaks about russia and peace plans; 

The Minsk process (Minsk I in September 2014 and Minsk II in February 2015) was born from desperation: Ukraine’s military was in tatters after defeats like Ilovaisk (August 2014, where thousands of Ukrainian troops were killed or captured in an encirclement) and the early Debaltseve push. This dire situation prompted Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande to intervene urgently via the Normandy Format, which resulted in Minsk II. That agreement was a bust. Russia’s President Putin was bamboozled by the West… He genuinely believed that the West and Ukraine were serious about ending the war against the people of the Donbas. They were not.

In December 2022, both Merkel and Hollande admitted that Minsk II was a ploy to give Ukraine time to regroup and rebuild its army with the help of NATO. Merkel, in an interview with Die Zeit on December 7, 2022 said:...........more............