French monitor: Ukraine, NATO provoked Russia in Donbas war

Pushback with Aaron Mate

Pushback with Aaron Maté

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4.7 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 95 minutes

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Summary

Benoit Paré is a former French defense ministry analyst who worked as an international monitor in eastern Ukraine from 2015 to 2022. In his first interview with a US outlet, Paré speaks to The Grayzone's Aaron Maté about the hidden reality of the Ukraine war in the Donbas region, where the US-backed Kyiv government fought Russia-backed rebels following the 2014 Maidan coup. Russia now demands that Ukraine accept its capture of the Donbas as a condition for ending the war. When it comes to which party is responsible for the failure to implement the Minsk accords, the 2015 peace pact that could have prevented the 2022 Russian invasion, Paré says. "I will be very clear. For me the fault lies on Ukraine... by far." Paré also warns that Ukrainian ultra-nationalists, who violently resisted the Minsk accords, remain a major obstacle to peace. Paré worked as a monitor for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a predominately European group. He recounts his experience as an OSCE monitor in Ukraine in his new book, "What I saw in Ukraine: 2015-2022, Diary of an International Observer." Benoit Paré's book: https://www.amazon.com/What-Saw-Ukraine-2015-2022-International/dp/295986011X

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aaron Mate with the Gray Zone.
0:02.8	In the aftermath of the Trump-Pooten summit in Alaska, what is next for the war in Ukraine?
0:09.8	Well, joining me is someone with first-hand insight on that conflict.
0:14.0	Benoit Paray is a former official in the French Defense Ministry and the European Union,
0:19.0	and he spent years on the ground in Ukraine
0:22.0	as an observer with the OSCE. That's the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
0:28.4	He recounts that experience in his new book. It's called What I Saw in Ukraine, 2015 to 2022,
0:36.9	Diary of an International Observer.
0:38.3	Benoit Paray, thank you for joining me.
0:41.3	Thank you for your invitation.
0:44.3	Okay, let's get to Ukraine.
0:47.3	The standard picture from the period that you're there,
0:49.3	you're on the ground in Ukraine from 2015 to 2022,
0:53.3	the standard picture is that, so after you have the Maidan Revolution coup, depending
0:59.1	how you see it in 2014, where the government of Yanukovych was overthrown with U.S.
1:04.6	support, you had a civil war breakout between the U.S.-backed new government in Kiev
1:09.8	and the Russian-backed rebels in the
1:12.1	East who revolted against the ouster of their elected leader, Yanukovych, and the ensuing
1:17.4	crackdown on their culture, their ethnic Russian culture in eastern Donbos.
1:21.9	Now, so here in the U.S., this period is described as basically Russia loft launched
1:27.4	a invasion of Ukraine by stealing
1:30.7	Crimea, annexing Crimea, and backing the rebels in the East. You were on the ground during this
	...

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