**MOSCOW**
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday accused France of lying and violating international agreements.
Peskov told Russia's Rossiya 1 TV that France has repeatedly lied, including about the implementation of the Minsk agreements for a settlement in Ukraine and violated security guarantees given to Viktor Yanukovych, a former Ukrainian president.
"There were a lot of lies from France. After all, we remember (then-French President Francois) Hollande's statement when he said that, in fact, no one took the Minsk agreements seriously. We remember when in 2014, among other Europeans, the French foreign minister signed a document that guaranteed the legitimate president of Ukraine at that time, Yanukovych, his political future," said Peskov.
The Minsk agreements were meant to resolve the crisis after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 as well as with Russian separatists fighting in Eastern Ukraine.
After Yanukovich trusted France, Germany, and Poland, he was ousted by rebels, said Peskov.
"In other words, France, like other countries, didn’t fulfill its guarantees. Wasn't that a lie? It was a real lie," he stressed, adding that when French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of posing a threat to Europe, did not mention France's mistakes.
On Wednesday, Macron said he would begin discussions with allies about the possibility of putting European countries under the protection of French nuclear deterrent forces at the call of Friedrich Merz, who is in line to be Germany’s next chancellor.
Macron also spoke about growing threats to Europe, including allegedly from Russia, thus justifying the need to increase Paris' defense spending. He also announced his intention to continue supporting Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.
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