Vladimir Putin outrageously claimed last night that he was read to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine 18 months ago but Boris Johnson scuppered the deal.
The Russian President sensationally claimed the former Prime Minister ‘dissuaded’ the leader of Ukraine’s leading party from signing the document and said it ‘was better to fight Russia’.
Mr Putin claimed 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 despot made the jaw-dropping accusations during the much anticipated two-hour long sit-down interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
He claimed that Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Ukraine’s ruing party, put his ‘preliminary signature’ on the deal after direct negotiations with Russian in Istanbul.
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.
Vladimir Putin outrageously claimed last night that he was read to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine 18 months ago but Boris Johnson scuppered the deal
The Russian President sensationally claimed the former Prime Minister ‘dissuaded’ the leader of Ukraine’s leading party from signing the document and said it ‘was better to fight Russia’
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.
‘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.’
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,’ 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.
The despot made the jaw-dropping accusations during the much anticipated two-hour long sit-down interview with former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson
‘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.
The deal would have seen Ukraine abandoning its plans to join Nato and accepting neutrality.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, alleged late last year that Mr Johnson ‘banned’ Kyiv from signing a peace agreement.
She made the remarks on the back of Mr Arakhamia telling Ukrainian media that Mr Johnson had advised them to ‘not sign anything’ with Russia ‘and let’s just fight’.
Mr Johnson told The Times last month: ‘This is nothing but total nonsense and Russian propaganda.’
Those denials were backed up by Mr Arakhamia who accused Moscow of distorting his words and saying it would be impossible for any western allies to order Zelensky what to do.
He told The Times: ‘No peace proposals or peace agreement were possible in February or March 2022. Russia entered Ukraine solely for the sake of seizing territories, killing citizens and overthrowing a democratic government.
