Vladimir Putin, 70, outrageously claimed last night that he was ready to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine 18 months ago but Boris Johnson scuppered the deal.
What Putin Said in Full Statement
The Russian President sensationally claimed the former Prime Minister ‘dissuaded’ the leader of Ukraine’s leading party from signing the document.
Mr Putin alleged that negotiations had been taking place in Istanbul and that Ukraine signed the deal but backed out under pressure from Mr Johnson who said it was ‘better to fight Russia‘.
The 70-year-old despot made the jaw-dropping accusations during the much anticipated two-hour long sit-down interview with former Fox News host News Tucker Carlson.
Mr Putin was allowed to drone on unchallenged for long chunks of time as he gave a rambling history lesson about Russia dating back to the year 800.
Putin Said Ukraine was ‘in’ For the Deal Already
He claimed that Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Ukraine’s ruling party, put his ‘preliminary signature’ on the deal after direct negotiations with Russians in Istanbul.
Mr Putin said: ‘But then he [Arakhamia] publicly stated to the whole world, we were ready to sign this document but Mr Johnson, then the Prime Minister, came and dissuaded us from doing this, saying it was better to fight Russia.
‘They would give everything needed for us to return what was lost during the clashes with Russia. And we agreed with this proposal’.
Mr Putin went on: ‘And the fact that they obey the demand or persuasion of Mr Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous.
Why Putin is Sad
‘And it’s very sad to me because, as Mr Arakhamia put it, we could have stopped those hostilities with war a year and a half ago already. But the British persuaded us and we refused this. Where is Mr Johnson now? And the war continues.’
Why the Peace Deal Falter
He accused the US of telling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to refuse to negotiate any deal and said he wanted to agree a settlement.
‘And we made it [a deal],’ he said.
‘We prepared the huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He had fixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it, and the war would have been over long ago. Eighteen months ago.
‘However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talk to us out of it and we missed that chance. Well, you missed it. You made a mistake. Let them get back to that.’
The Kremlin has previously suggested Mr Johnson’s trip to Kyiv in April 2022 as an intervention to derail any peace deal and would have seen Russia withdrawing its troops.
