Manoylo A.V. The Normandy Format of the European Union's Hybrid Diplomacy

Abstract: The present article is dedicated to the evaluation of the results of the Berlin tour of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that took place on 24 August 2015, as well as the trilateral negotiations between Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande, held without the participation of Russia. The object of study are the negotiations between the heads of the four states — Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine — regarding compliance with the Minsk Agreements held in the Normandy format. The subject of the research are the results of the unscheduled meeting of the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine held in Berlin on 24 August 2015 that was dedicated to the observance by the participants of the armed conflict in the Donbass of the main provisions of the Minsk Agreements. The methodological basis of the research are systems, structural and functional, comparative political approaches, methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and observation. The author notes that the Minsk Agreements were never perceived by the Ukrainian leadership as a document of direct action — for the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and his American overseers they have always been only a pretext that allowing to gain time required for the re-mobilisation of units and formations, defeated near Donetsk — for their equipment, training, replenishment, for one sole purpose — a new offensive in the Donbass. The psychology of Poroshenko and other representatives of the new government in Ukraine is that they simply do not see any other solution to the problem on the south-east, except of the power of repression and the complete destruction of their opponents.

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