Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Tuesday that the Minsk peace deal no longer exists, BBC reports.
Putin was referring to a pair of agreements, signed in 2014 and 2015 in Minsk, Belarus, which were intended to end fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Neither the initial Minsk Protocol nor the subsequent "Minsk II" agreement resulted in a lasting ceasefire, though many international observers continued to push for its full implementation as the best way of achieving peace.
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Both breakaway republics claim land currently controlled by the Ukrainian military, which could give Russian troops a pretext to launch attacks against Ukrainian forces, sparking an all-out war between the two nations.
In a speech announcing his decision, Putin said that "Ukraine for us is not just a neighboring country. It is an integral part of our own history, culture, spiritual space," according to a translation provided by The New York Times. He also claimed that Ukraine has "never had a tradition of genuine statehood" and that "[m]odern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely Bolshevik communist Russia," according to Reuters. Therefore, Putin claimed, "decommunization" should have entailed the re-incorporation of Ukraine into Russia. "We are ready to show you what real decommunization means for Ukraine," Putin said.
A senior U.S. official told CNN that Putin's remarks were "meant to justify war."
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