# Minsk Agreements **Status: stub — expand.** The two ceasefire deals that froze, without ending, the [[Donbas War (2014-2022)]]. - **Minsk Protocol (Sept 5, 2014).** A 12-point protocol signed by Ukraine, Russia, the Russian-backed separatists and the OSCE: a ceasefire, prisoner exchanges and humanitarian aid. It collapsed within months. - **Minsk II, the "Package of Measures" (Feb 12, 2015).** Thirteen points, signed by the Trilateral Contact Group — the OSCE's Heidi Tagliavini, former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russian ambassador Mikhail Zurabov and the two separatist leaders. The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France (the Normandy Format) issued a separate declaration backing it. Terms included a ceasefire from February 15, heavy weapons pulled back 50–140 km depending on type, OSCE monitoring, a law on "special status" and local elections for the occupied districts, amnesty, an all-for-all prisoner exchange, and the withdrawal of "foreign armed formations," which Russia said did not apply to it. **The sequencing was the trap.** Ukraine would regain control of its own border with Russia only *after* local elections and constitutional decentralization in the occupied districts. Kyiv read that as legalizing a Russian proxy inside its political system; Moscow read Kyiv's refusal as bad faith. Russia's February 21, 2022 recognition of the two "people's republics" ended the agreements three days before the full-scale invasion. The "special status first, sovereignty later" design recurs in the [[Mariupol Plan]] and the [[28-Point Peace Plan]]. ## See also - [[Ukraine War Timeline]] · [[Donbas War (2014-2022)]] · [[Petro Poroshenko]] · [[Vladimir Putin]]