He stated this in an interview with the Kyiv Independent.
“Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military potential.
Indeed, the Ukrainian army has become completely different... It is better trained and equipped.
The merit of the Minsk agreements is that they provided the Ukrainian army with such an opportunity, ”said Hollande.
According to him, an example of this "is clearly visible on the battlefield."
Earlier, Merkel called the Minsk agreements an attempt to give Ukraine time to "become stronger."
She noted that today's Ukraine militarily is "not what it was in 2014-2015."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was disappointed with such a statement by the ex-Chancellor of Germany.
He stressed that Russia did the right thing by launching a special operation, because no one was going to fulfill the Minsk agreements.
After that, the Kremlin said that Moscow had every reason not to trust the words and signatures of European politicians.