Just four days before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron had a heated argument over the phone, with the Russian strongman claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was lying to the French president, according to a bombshell leak.
Details of the confidential exchange between the two world leaders on February 20 were revealed in a new documentary about Macron’s handling of the ongoing conflict, titled “President, Europe and War,” which premiered last week on France 2.
As Russia was in the process of building up its forces in preparation for a full-scale invasion at the end of February, Macron called his Russian counterpart to offer his views on the escalating situation and discuss “useful actions” to defuse it.
Putin quickly turned the conversation to “our dear colleague Mr. Zelensky,” accusing the Ukrainian president of “lying” to Macron about his intention to implement the Minsk agreements that sought to end the war in the Donbass region.
Putin then took issue with Zelensky’s apparent refusal to negotiate with pro-Kremlin Ukrainian separatists, infuriating the French president and prompting him to exclaim in audible frustration: “I don’t know where your lawyer learned law!”
Macron questioned the qualifications of Putin’s lawyers during a tense discussion over Russia’s offer for Ukraine to negotiate with pro-Kremlin separatists. AP Two weeks before the phone call, Macron (right) met Putin in person in Moscow.SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
He then added: “I don’t know which lawyer would be able to tell you that in a sovereign state, the texts of laws are proposed by separatist groups, not by democratically elected authorities.”
Putin responded to his French counterpart by arguing that Zelensky’s government was not democratically elected.
“They came to power with a bloody coup, with murder and arson and people being burned alive,” Putin told Macron.
Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, was elected in a landslide in 2019, garnering more than 73 percent of the vote.
As the verbal spat grew more heated, Macron told Putin he “doesn’t care about the separatists’ proposals” because they are outlawed.
After some more arguments, the leader of France tried to return the conversation to a diplomatic line and proposed a meeting between all parties to the conflict. He also promised Putin to call Zelensky to “calm everyone down” but urged the Russian leader to lower the temperature on the border with Ukraine.
“Yesterday there was a lot of shelling,” Macron pointed out. “If we want to give dialogue a chance, we need to calm things down in the region.
Putin said his forces would end their military exercises tonight, but warned that Russia “will definitely leave a military presence on the border until the situation in Donbas calms down.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday criticized the “unilateral leak” of the confidential phone call, calling it a breach of “diplomatic ethics”. AFP via Getty Images
Macron urged Putin “not to give in to provocations of any kind” and pressed him to agree to a face-to-face meeting with President Biden in Geneva in the coming days, but the Russian leader avoided naming a specific date, covering his brush. please leave.
Putin then casually ended the conversation by telling Macron: “To be honest with you, I wanted to go play ice hockey because here I am talking to you from the gym before I start exercising.”
Despite his assurances to Macron that he agreed “in principle” to meet with Biden to find a diplomatic solution to the brewing crisis, the very next day Putin recognized Ukraine’s breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.
And three days after that, Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, raining artillery fire on cities including Kyiv.
During a visit to Vietnam on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took aim at France for leaking the contents of the top-secret conversation.
“Basically, we conduct the negotiations in such a way that there is never anything to be ashamed of, if you like,” the foreign minister said. “We always say what we think and are ready to answer for our words and explain our position. I believe that diplomatic ethics, of course, do not allow such a unilateral leak of the record.
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