The occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation as well as the six-year war in eastern Ukraine were the main reasons for the termination of the Great Treaty between our state and Russia.These challenges to Ukraine and all international security as well require the search for adequate answers to change the situation, first of all the cessation of the war and the return of 408 km of the Ukrainian-Russian border.The platform for finding a common solution to the existing challenges is the Minsk Agreements, which were signed on September 5, 2014 by Ukraine, Russia, representatives of the DPR and LPR and a representative of the OSCE.The article examines the prerequisites for signing these agreements, the state of their implementation in 2014-2015, and later – from 2015 to 2019 with the participation of the representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.The analysis and generalization of the normative documents developed in the course of joint work in the “Norman format” is carried out.The problems of implementation of the agreements signed by Petro Poroshenko, who was the President of Ukraine, were emphasized.An analysis of the assessments of the agreements of September 5, 2014, which are contained in the works of many authors, reviewers of various media, as well as the provisions and assessments of Vladimir Horbulin, given in his works.It was concluded that, despite the negative attitude of many politicians and scholars to the Minsk agreements, the signed document was necessary in order to:- first, to suspend the offensive of Russian troops after Ilovaisk;- secondly, to regroup the Armed Forces of Ukraine and strengthen defensive positions;- thirdly, to involve the leading countries of Europe and the world in solving the problems in the East of Ukraine.At the same time, the author fully agrees with V. Horbulin that there are only two ways in Ukraine: either to become a strong state, or to face a real danger of absorption.