TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Just four days before Moscow troops invaded Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron had a heated argument over the phone. As reported The New York Postthis is revealed in a leaked phone recording between the two leaders of the country.
Details of the secret conversation between the two world leaders on February 20 are revealed in a new documentary about Macron’s handling of the ongoing conflict. The film, titled “A President, Europe and War,” premiered last week on the television channel France 2.
While Russia was in the process of gathering its troops for an invasion on February 24, Macron called Putin to discuss “useful measures” to de-escalate tensions in the Ukraine-Russia region.
However, Putin quickly shifted the conversation about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He accused the Ukrainian president of “lying” to Macron about his intention to implement the Minsk Accords, which seek to end the war in the Donbas region.
Putin later took issue with Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate with pro-Kremlin Ukrainian separatists. This angered the French president who later shouted at Putin, “I don’t know where your lawyer studied law!”
Macron later added, “I don’t know what lawyer can tell you that in a sovereign country, the text of the law is proposed by separatist groups and not by democratically elected authorities.”
Putin later hit back, saying that Zelensky’s government was not democratically elected. “They came to power in a bloody coup, with killings and arson and people being burned alive,” Putin told Macron.
Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, was elected with a landslide victory in 2019 attracting more than 73 percent of the vote. As the verbal altercation heated up, Macron told Putin he was not “concerned about separatist proposals” because they were outside the law.
After a few more quarrels, the French leader tried to get the talks back on diplomatic lines and proposed a meeting between all parties to the conflict. He also promised Putin to call Zelensky to “calm everyone down.” However, he urged the Russian leader to lower temperatures on the Ukrainian border.
“There was a lot of shooting yesterday,” Macron said. “If we want to give dialogue a chance, we have to calm things down in the region.”
Putin said his troops would finish their military exercises that evening, but warned that Russia “will definitely abandon its military presence at the border until the situation in Donbas calms down.”
Macron urged Putin “not to give in to provocations of any kind,” and urged him to agree to a face-to-face meeting with President Biden in Geneva in the coming days. But Putin avoided mentioning a specific date, and later closed the conversation.
Putin then casually ended the call by telling Macron, “To be honest, I wanted to play ice hockey because here I am talking to you from the gym before starting physical training.”
Despite his assurances to Macron that he agreed “in principle” to meet with Biden to find a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis, Putin the next day recognized the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic from Ukraine.
And three days after that, the troops Russia carried out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, raining artillery fire on cities and towns, including Kyiv.
Also read: Telephone Recordings of Putin – Macron Before Ukraine War Leaked, Russia Furious
SUMBER: THE NEW YORK POST
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