The video with Matvienko's statement was published in his Telegram channel by the journalist of the program "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" on the TV channel "Russia 1" Pavel Zarubin.
According to her, former French President and German Chancellor Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel for eight years deceived Moscow in their commitment to the Minsk agreements in order to prepare Ukraine for the conflict and "saturate" the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons.
Matviyenko noted that now it has become even more obvious that a special operation in Ukraine was inevitable.
"And if such a decision had not been made, the consequences would have been catastrophic for us," said the chairman of the Federation Council.
Earlier, Hollande admitted that the Minsk agreements helped Ukraine buy time to build up its military power.