The Minsk agreements are not sufficient to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine, Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said.

"We must tell the truth. The Minsk agreements, despite the significant contribution of Germany and France and the personal courageous efforts of Angela Merkel, were needed to avoid a full-scale military escalation at that time, but today they are not sufficient to achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace," Tymoshenko said during the New Course of Ukraine forum in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to her, the fact that the Minsk agreements have no alternative has become the main achievement of the Kremlin in its actions against Ukraine.

Tymoshenko also considers it unacceptable that the issue of Russian-annexed Crimea is not raised at all during negotiations on a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

"The return of Crimea is not at all the subject of the Minsk agreements. All the participants tried to just forget about the most important question about Crimea. We will never let anyone forget about Crimea and we will not stop until we return Crimea to Ukraine," Tymoshenko said.