This is the moment Emmanuel Macron woke Donald Trump to deliver news of a potential Ukraine ceasefire, sparking a gleeful response from the US president who replied, ‘Oh good, Nobel Prize for this.’
Previously unseen footage shows the French leader calling Trump from Kyiv in the early hours of May 10 to say that Volodymyr Zelensky had agreed to European-backed terms for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Russia, to be monitored by the US.
‘Donald, I know it’s very early for you. I’m sorry to call you at this time,’ Macron is heard saying in the clip, filmed for a France Télévisions documentary, before explaining that Kyiv had agreed to the deal.
‘He accepted all off that?’ Trump asked. ‘Oh good. The Nobel Peace Prize for this,’ the US president replied – an award he repeatedly said he would like to win.
Moments later, Trump is heard praising Macron and reacting enthusiastically to the news as the European leaders prepare to brief him jointly. ‘You’re the best,’ Trump mutters.
In a second sequence filmed minutes afterwards, Macron is seen standing alongside Zelensky, Keir Starmer, Poland’s Donald Tusk, and Germany’s Friedrich Merz as they warn Trump that journalists are present while restating the agreement reached with Kyiv.
But hopes of a truce were short-lived. A few hours later, Vladimir Putin rejected the ceasefire and proposed ‘direct negotiations’ with Ukraine on May 16.
These talks, desired by Moscow, were held in Istanbul, but without the presence of either president, as Russia sent Vladimir Medinsky, a junior advisor.
Further ‘direct’ negotiations were then organized in the Turkish city in early June and again ended in failure.
This is not the first time that the details of a diplomatic call have been revealed by French television.
In 2022, it emerged that Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin had a furious telephone bust-up just four days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
A bombshell recording revealed the French president blasted his counterpart over suggestions he should negotiate with pro-Russian separatists, exclaiming at one point: ‘I don’t know where your lawyers learned the law!’
The tense exchange ended with Putin declaring he is in the gym about to play ice hockey after brushing off requests to hold a meeting with Joe Biden.
The details of the confidential February 20 call were revealed by the broadcaster France 2 in a documentary on the French president’s handling of the conflict, A President, Europe and War.
In the fiery discussion, Macron told Putin: ‘I don’t know where your lawyer learned the law! I’m just looking at the texts and trying to apply them!
‘I don’t know what lawyer will be able to tell you that in a sovereign country, the texts of laws are proposed by separatist groups and not by the democratically elected authorities.’
A raging Putin then replies: ‘This is not a democratically elected government.
‘They came to power in a coup, there were people burned alive, it was a bloodbath, and Zelensky is one of those responsible.’
When the Kremlin leader again suggested Macron negotiate with the separatists, the Frenchman exclaims: ‘We don’t give a damn about the separatists’ proposals!’
