Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his disappointment at former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent statements on Ukraine. Russia interpreted statements by Merkel in an interview with the news website Zeit online to mean that the Minsk peace plan was only concluded to give Ukraine time to arm itself and prepare for war with Russia. “Honestly, this was absolutely unexpected for me. It’s disappointing. I frankly did not expect to hear something like this from the former German chancellor,” Putin told journalists in Bishkek on Friday. The Minsk peace plan for eastern Ukraine, whi…