What Are the Minsk Agreements and Can They Help De-escalate the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

PeopleDiplomats ♦ Published: February 16, 2022; 17:30 ♦ (Vindobona)

Some leaders have suggested that the Minsk Agreements could provide a path to a diplomatic solution to the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Read more about the Minsk Agreements and if they really do provide a viable solution to the Ukraine crisis.

The Donbas region in Ukraine has been the cite of conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine since 2014. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Goran tek-en, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The world continues to wait anxiously as Vladimir Putin’s Russia still has over 100,000 troops stationed on Ukraine’s border and seems to be undecided on whether to invade the former Soviet state of more than 40 million people.

Despite fears of an impending invasion, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation are ongoing, with the latest high-profile example of this being German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s meeting with Putin in Moscow.

Many leaders, including Scholz, have pointed to the Minsk Agreements as a potential path for easing tensions and ultimately pulling all parties back from the brink of war.

So what exactly are the Minsk Agreements, and can they actually help Ukraine and Russia to reach a diplomatic solution?…