The Kremlin has made claims that the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had “banned Kyiv” to sign a “peace agreement” with Russia following negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey in March 2022.
Johnson has denied Moscow’s claims and said the statements coming out of the Kremlin is “total nonsense and Russian propaganda.”
In an interview with The Times that was published on Wednesday Johnson denied the claims that he prevented President Volodymyr Zelensky in “signing a peace agreement with Russia.”
Johnson was one of the first Western leaders to travel to Kyiv and meet with President Zelensky in April 2022.
The Times said, “In Russia, however, Johnson’s trip to Ukraine is now being portrayed by the Kremlin as something far more sinister: an intervention that derailed a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, ensuring that there would be no early end to the biggest conflict in Europe since 1945.”
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According to The Times, Moscow in recent months has accused the former British Prime Minister vetoing the agreement that would have allegedly seen Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine.
Putin allegedly showed African leaders at a meeting in St Petersburg a signed draft agreement between Russia and Ukraine that sets out limits for Kyiv’s troops which would have led to Russia withdrawing their forces.
Putin claimed in December 2023 that the deal was agreed which was later “chucked away into the stove,” but Ukraine has said that no deals were signed and this would have only been possible had President Zelensky met with the Russian leader.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, claimed late in 2023 that, “Johnson banned Kyiv from signing a peace agreement with Russia following negotiations in Istanbul at the end of March 2022 and demanded the continuation of hostilities against Russia.”
Johnson was quoted in The Time in an interview during a conversation with President Zelensky following the talks in Istanbul, Johnson “had been concerned about the nature of any potential agreement and had pledged that Britain would support Ukraine ‘a thousand per cent.’”
The Wall Street Journal cited Johnson as saying, “I was a bit worried at that stage.
“I could not see for the life of me what the deal could be, and I thought that any deal with Putin was going to be pretty sordid.”
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