In an exclusive interview with the Kyiv Independent [1], former President François Hollande backed up the comments made by former Chancellor Angela Merkel in Die Zeit [2]. To the question "Do you also think that the Minsk negotiations were aimed at delaying Russian advances in Ukraine?" he replied "Yes, Angela Merkel is right on this point".

As for former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshneko, he publicly declared as soon as the agreements were signed that he would never implement them.

Only the fourth signatory, Russian President Vladimir Putin, believed in the good faith of his partners. However, the fact that he approached the United Nations Security Council to seek the adoption of Resolution 2202 endorsing these agreements implies that he no longer believed the West and was beginning to plan for the current intervention. This resolution gives him the right, as guarantor of the Minsk agreements, to intervene under his "responsibility to protect".

Note to those who will read the original text of the interview with Mr. Hollande

François Hollande refers to the inhabitants of Donbass, who demanded the recognition of their rights, as "separatists" which is somewhat anachronistic. Indeed, in 2014-2015, the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics conceived themselves as autonomous regions of Crimea; they became separatists only when Kiev was preparing to launch a decisive military operation against them in 2022. The Kyiv Independent, which frowns on the term "separatist", attributes it to Russian propaganda, but the term was never used by the Kremlin before 2022.
Moreover, there were no Russian soldiers in Donbass at the time, only mercenaries funded by a nationalist billionaire. President Putin pointed out to him that his economic status did not give him a political mandate and forced him to withdraw his men. The Russian army only arrived in the Donbass during its intervention on 24 February 2022, in order to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2022... which endorses the Minsk Agreements.

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[1] «Hollande: ‘There will only be a way out of the conflict when Russia fails on the ground’», Theo Prouvost, Kyiv Independent, December 28, 2022.

[2] "Hatten Sie gedacht, ich komme mit Pferdeschwanz?", Tina Hildebrandt und Giovanni di Lorenzo, Die Zeit, 7. Dezember 2022.