LUGANSK, January 28. /TASS/. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not closely involved in the Normandy format in order to assess its effectiveness, Foreign Minister of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Vladislav Deinego told TASS.
"Johnson cannot assess the Normandy format, because the UK had nothing to do with this process, and even more so Johnson himself - he was not even closely involved in all these events, because at the time of the Normandy format was set he had nothing to do with the government," Deinego said.
He added that the Normandy format and the Minsk agreements contributed to the settlement of the military conflict and the stabilization of the situation in the Donbass region.
"In fact, the Normandy format and the Minsk agreements were a fairly helpful move toward conflict resolution at the time they were executed. We can only speculate when this position changed, but [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel said that this framework was used to mimic the negotiation process, to replicate the peace process since the beginning. However, we were able to put in place a number of procedures targeted at decreasing the escalation and stabilizing the situation," he said.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier admitted that the Normandy Quartet that was established in order to resolve the conflict in Ukraine peacefully was a diplomatic decoy.
Speaking to Ukraine’s Rada TV channel, Johnson acknowledged that, after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the West imposed sanctions on Russia and launched the Normandy Four - which he called a diplomatic decoy - and achieved nothing.
The Normandy Quartet was a four-way negotiation format, which included Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, and it was supposed to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine’s southeast. This format was named after the location of the first meeting of the four leaders. During one meeting in 2015, the format adopted the Package of Measures on the Implementation of Minsk Agreements, sometimes referred to as ‘Minsk 2’.
Earlier in December, German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview that the adoption of the Minsk Agreements was "an attempt to give Ukraine time to become stronger." According to Merkel, it was "clear for everyone" that the conflict was merely suspended and that the issue was not resolved, but "it was what provided Ukraine with precious time." She doubted that NATO states could have given as much support to Kiev back then as they do now. Her words were later confirmed by French ex-President Francois Hollande, who also participated in hammering out the Package of Measures. Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Merkel’s words about the Minsk Agreements turned out to be completely unexpected and a letdown for him.