Putin vs the West (2023) s01e01 Episode Script

1
I have met Putin 25 times.
And for me, Putin is someone
that knows how to measure risk.
There is a rationality in
his decision-making.
When I saw him the days before
the invasion of Ukraine,
I think emotion was stronger
than the rational thinking.
Now he's expressing a very,
very deep frustration and
resentment against the West -
but not only against the West,
against the past, against history.
Vladimir Putin has rocked the
foundations of European security.
This is the story of Putin's
path to war,
how and why
he wrong-footed the West
through a decade of clashes
Putin said, "I can get away with it."
"And the Americans
won't do anything."
Told by the leaders who've
locked horns with him.
We should have stood up to him then.
That is the truth.
And what is happening now
in Ukraine is the turning point.
In this episode, how Europe's will
was put to the test when, in 2014,
Putin first attacked Ukraine
I said, "If we don't react now,
the Russians will interpret this as
"a carte blanche to do even more".
And how, when he spied
division in the West,
the Russian President
pressed home his advantage.
When I confronted him with the fact
that there were Russian troops
in Crimea, he said,
"Jose Manuel, these are not
the Russian troops.
"If it was really the Armed Forces
of Russia," he said to me,
"they could take Kyiv in
less than two weeks".
Quite extraordinary.
I remember the summit very clearly
because actually, strangely enough,
the Foreign Office didn't think
it was particularly important.
But President Grybauskaite
of Lithuania,
who was holding the conference,
said, "I really want you to come."
"This is important."
And I thought, "Well, I'll come".
Eastern Partnership summits were
not always attended by everyone.
This time, everybody came,
including the
Prime Minister of Britain,
because we knew this would be
a historic moment.
The climax of the summit was due
to be a breakthrough trade deal
between Ukraine and the EU.
If President Viktor Yanukovych
signed, it would be his country's
biggest step towards the West since
leaving the Soviet Union in 1991.
But after a recent trip to Moscow,
rumours had started that
he was feeling the heat
from Vladimir Putin.
We were staying at a lovely hotel,
and the reception area was full of
people having coffee, chatting.
And as I came through the lobby,
I saw Yanukovych.
He's a very tall,
very imposing figure.
He saw me, nodded to me,
and then, came over.
We exchanged pleasantries -
how was he, what was
his journey like - and so on.
And after the pleasantries,
he says to me,
"You do know that
I can't sign the agreement".
He was very embarrassed,
because that agreement had
been negotiated for
more than five years.
He tried to present some excuses
but it was very clear that
he could not do it
because of Russian pressure.
Whatever was said on the trip to
Moscow, Yanukovych clearly
came back, er, having had, er,
really having had
the frighteners put on him.
I and Merkel, we had been speaking
with him just eye-to-eye.
And, because we spoke in Russian,
he was more sincere.
And he gave us some kind of
understanding that he was
under pressure,
personally under pressure.
Chancellor Merkel told
President Yanukovych very clearly,
"We expect you to agree to it."
"We believe that also, this is
what your population believes."
"This is what we have been striving
for, for the last years, actually."
"And now, you are backing down."
"This is incomprehensible for us."
There was this popular expression
in Ukraine about milking two cows.
That Ukraine, to a certain extent,
had an opportunity to, sort of,
play both sides off against
each other, make sure it was,
kind of, sucking the benefits
out of both relationships.
We thought that it's only
about financial compensations.
So, we presented him possible
solutions, even billions
of financial assistance.
Again, he's not able to sign.
The EU was offering Ukraine
huge developmental assistance
for the country
but bound up in procedures
and spread over many years.
Putin was offering cash
literally the next day.
There were rumours of trucks
with cash being sent from Ukraine
to Yanukovych's accounts in Russia.
I was pretty clear, from everything
I heard from Yanukovych,
that he wasn't serious about
a partnership with the EU.
I spoke with President Aliyev,
from Azerbaijan, who I always
thought was quite a good reader
of the situation,
and he said, "Oh, it's clear to me,
Yanukovych and the Ukrainians want"
"a better deal from Moscow,
so they're flirting with the EU"
"to get a better deal from Moscow.
But that's what they want."
We said to Yanukovych, "You're
the president of your country."
"You were elected on a platform
that included the signing of"
"this agreement as a centrepiece
of your presidency."
"You have chosen, for whatever
reasons, not to sign it."
"It's your responsibility now
to go home and explain to the people"
"who elected you,
why you have done that."
In Ukraine's capital,
thousands had gathered in
the main square, the Maidan.
SHOUTING IN UKRAINIAN
When Yanukovych refused to sign,
the crowds were watching.
I was very clear -
EU is the only way for Ukraine.
European Union is the only future
for the Ukrainian people,
and we will never go
back to the USSR.
Just two weeks later,
as demonstrations continued
in the Maidan,
Yanukovych returned to Moscow
to sign a deal with Putin.
At that time, we really had
a good relationship with
our Ukrainian colleagues.
We were supporting Ukraine
from the very beginning,
when Soviet Union has disappeared.
That is why the Russian
government has allocated a
very serious sum of money.
We hoped that we can make
Ukraine stable.
Russia would slash gas prices
for Ukraine and loan Yanukovych's
government $15 billion.
In the tug-of-war over Ukraine,
Putin looked to be winning.
We were always very clear,
if Ukraine signed up to the
association agreement with the EU,
it would be signing up to a lot of
things that Putin wouldn't like.
Like the rule of law,
like an independent judiciary,
strengthening democratic
institutions.
And that, in turn,
raises the risk that people
in Russia are going to say, "Look,
we need some of this, as well" -
and that's what Putin doesn't want.
Putin was now facing a popular
uprising on Russia's doorstep,
as protesters forced back
Yanukovych's riot police
and took over the Maidan.
Through the bitter winter,
a stream of Western politicians
and diplomats came to visit -
leaving little doubt
whose side they were on.
Hello, how are you?
Good to see you.
Arriving there, the thing that
I remember most is getting out of
the car and the cold air hitting me.
Cos it took your breath away,
it was freezing.
This was all kinds of people -
younger, older, families, children -
with one message for me, which is,
"We want to sign this agreement".
I was over there to take part
at the ministerial meeting,
so we were in Kyiv.
And the hotel was
not far from Maidan.
And I saw lots of diplomats.
And really, I didn't believe
that they could intervene so openly
into the political process.
Two months into the protests,
Putin had a rare chance to confront
the EU's leaders face-to-face.
Putin was very strong
on his position.
So, it was a very tough,
tough meeting.
Dealing with Putin, one is very
conscious of somebody who has power.
He is not brusque, but not friendly.
Putin was pretty clear that he was
angry about what was happening.
He said to me that I should not
take part in the demonstrations.
I pointed out that my responsibility
was to represent the EU,
but I did have to go and talk
to people who were
either flying an EU flag literally,
or who were really interested in
the relationship with the EU.
What is the right that Putin has
to say who should go or
not go to Ukraine?
Ukraine is not part of Russia.
We are, er, free countries!
But that was the position.
Soon, the protesters in Kyiv
started moving out of the square
and towards government buildings.
Oleksandr Turchynov,
a leading opposition MP,
rushed to see the President.
GUNFIRE
Before the protesters could retreat,
they came under fire from
the security forces.
I was in the Dolomites,
on a skiing holiday with my family.
I checked my phone, and there was
this video posted by Romanska TV -
a kind of citizen's TV
station at the time.
And you could clearly hear
the sounds of gunfire.
And not in the air, but into people.
So, I mean, we were about to get
dressed for skiing, and
I had to inform my family,
"Sorry, I have to go and be there".
That night, the demonstrators
set fire to car tyres,
trying to force back the police.
It had been the deadliest day
of the protests so far,
with more than 20 killed
and hundreds wounded.
Arriving in Kyiv, Sikorski,
along with the foreign ministers
of France and Germany,
headed to meet Yanukovych.
Later.
We told him,
"Look, you have to get real."
"This situation cannot be resolved
if you don't agree to go before"
"your term of office expires."
Erm, and he sort of went white,
and went to the next room
to make a foreign call.
Yanukovych didn't tell us
where the call was originating,
or where he was calling.
But his associates told us that
he was calling Moscow.
And, to our astonishment,
when he returned, er, he agreed.
For the Ukrainian President,
it was a humiliating defeat.
He's had to give up many of the
powers he took in controversial
changes to the constitution,
and he'll be gone
by the end of the year.
When we were entering
this building 24 hours ago,
there was black smoke, there was the
sound of gunfire and of detonations.
Now we have fair weather -
which shows that God is looking
with, um, favour on this agreement.
BEEPING
The following day,
Ukraine's parliament started trying
to put the deal into practice.
APPLAUSE
The House passed the legislation,
and we were trying
to find Yanukovych.
He has to sign it into the law.
No-one knew where Yanukovych was.
I remember ringing up and talking
to the Deputy Foreign Minister
at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry,
and saying, "What's going on?".
And the guy on the other end
of the phone said,
"We don't know where
President Yanukovych is".
In the middle of the night,
Yanukovych had flown by helicopter
to the East of Ukraine,
near the Russian border.
And on the streets of Kyiv,
the thousands of security forces
who'd been battling the protesters
had disappeared.
CHEERING
We were worried that now
we had a vacuum.
I thought it was really important
to get to Kyiv to talk to everybody,
and to see what we could do.
You, sort of, felt the heaviness.
You saw people standing around
in the streets with guns.
Everyone was really, kind of,
taking in what was going on.
Somebody whispered in my ear,
"Do you think it felt like this in
1917, in the Russian Revolution?"
And although, of course it was
entirely different,
I think what they were referring to
was that sense that everything
was about to change, and nobody
quite knew where it would go.
On the night that
Yanukovych fled Kyiv,
Vladimir Putin was busy hosting
the biggest international event
Russia had staged in years -
the Sochi Winter Olympics.
By now, Yanukovych had
reached Crimea,
a peninsula in the South of Ukraine.
It had deep ties to Russia,
and was home to
its Black Sea naval fleet.
Putin ordered his special forces
to escort Yanukovych to Russia.
But that wasn't all.
He was about to make his most
audacious move since taking office.
We started to hear that something
was afoot in Crimea.
By that time, in a number of
Ukraine's bigger cities,
we'd seen efforts on the part
of Russian-leaning groups
to storm public offices, to
kind of take over the town hall.
And, to be quite honest,
our first reports to London were
that we understood that something
similar was happening in Crimea.
In fact, Armed Forces were
appearing across the peninsula.
These "little green men",
as they came to be called,
wore unmarked uniforms and carried
modern Russian weapons
In Washington, the President was
briefed on the situation.
So far, he'd kept the crisis
in Ukraine at arms' length.
But Putin had now crossed a line.
Good afternoon, everybody.
We are now deeply concerned
by reports of military movements
taken by the Russian Federation
inside of Ukraine.
Just days after the world came
to Russia for the Olympic Games,
it would invite the condemnation
of nations around the world.
And there will be costs for any
military intervention in Ukraine.
OVERLAPPING CHATTER
Who those forces are in Crimea?
Are they Russian forces?
Obama called in his top advisers.
The President was keen for action -
not military action,
but economic action - which can be
very powerful if the US is doing it.
And the natural thing was
to turn to sanctions.
But we also wanted to be joined
together with allies in Europe.
And we in the US knew the economic
costs of sanctions on Russia,
and of any counter-sanctions
by Russia would be felt
much more strongly in Europe
than in the United States.
Obama would let
the Europeans take the lead.
The British Prime Minister
was one of the first
to speak directly to Putin.
The thing with Putin is
you've always known he mourns
the loss of the Soviet Union.
He wants to recover
territory where he can.
And I said to him, "Look, you know
this is illegitimate action."
"Ukraine is a legitimate country.
It has its own borders."
Cameron said what had happened
was just completely unacceptable.
One country had literally seized
a chunk of territory from another
country and claimed it for itself.
And when was the last time that
had happened in Europe?
Maybe maybe the Second World War,
and it hadn't happened since.
And Putin's response was that
Crimea basically historically had
always been part of Russia
and was their territory.
"This is my backyard,
keep out of it."
An emergency summit of EU
leaders was called.
Cameron arrived with a draft
proposal for wide-ranging
sanctions against Russia.
I was clear that we were not going
to send troops to Ukraine.
In your heart, you wanted
to do more, but in your head,
you knew, you know, we must not make
this a Russia-NATO conflict.
But I thought we could do
everything we could to try and make
the consequences bad for Russia
by having sanctions,
travel bans, asset freezes.
We need to send a very clear
message to the Russian government
that what has happened is
unacceptable.
There were two difficult
issues in it.
Number one -
if you talked about energy,
a lot of European countries,
particularly central European,
but also Germany had quite a heavy
reliance on Russian oil and gas.
And second,
some European countries -
notably again, Germany and Italy -
sold a lot of stuff to Russia.
Viktor Orban,
the Prime Minister of Hungary,
was saying that it was difficult
for him to accept sanctions because
if we adopted sanctions, there would
be counter-sanctions from Russia.
Merkel was quite supportive,
but kind of flagged up
the energy was difficult.
The reaction of Europe
at the time was very upsetting.
The cheap energy was so comfortable
and so addictive that
they were not able to overstep
their pragmatic policies.
I said very clearly,
"No more business as usual."
"We can't leave this Council
without a clear declaration that"
"what's happened is wrong."
That's always the problem
with sanctions taken
by a group of countries.
The countries want to
adopt sanctions,
but they don't want their sectors
or where they have stronger
interests to be very much affected.
The European Council
threatened sanctions
unless Putin withdrew his forces.
These would target a
small number of individuals,
but none of Russia's key
economic sectors,
and nothing would happen right away.
I'll answer every question you ask.
I was disappointed, yes.
But I never went public
accusing our Western friends.
I am well aware of Putin's playbook,
to split unity in the EU
and to play on these differences.
So, I never went public,
but I was very tough
behind the closed doors.
CHANTING Ten days
later, with Putin's backing,
a referendum was held in Crimea.
Officially, 93% voted in favour of
joining the Russian Federation -
a figure widely rejected
by the international community.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
For Putin, this didn't matter.
The same week, Obama was in Europe
with his own message for Putin.
America's got a whole
lot of challenges.
Russia is a regional power that
is threatening some of
its immediate neighbours
not out of strength,
but out of weakness.
He said that Russia is just
a regional power -
and this is not helpful,
because it feeds on resentment.
And for me, Putin is essentially
a product of resentment
because of the decline, and also,
humiliation of Russia after
the collapse of the Soviet Union.
What's the need of humiliating,
or creating more resentment
in someone like Putin?
It perhaps inflamed Putin
that he said it.
But that was how he saw it.
This is not the biggest
threat that we face.
This is a threat that
we're going to deal with,
and that we are dealing with,
but we don't need to get too
worked up about it.
When Putin met the new President
of the European Commission
months later, Obama's words
still rankled.
We were discussing Crimea.
Putin repeated his Crimean poem,
saying that this was
a part of Russia,
and of the former Soviet Union.
And for the very first time,
I noted that something had changed.
When it came to Ukraine,
he suddenly expressed himself in
a far more brutal way than
was usually the case.
He's hardened his position.
He's very aggressive.
He's very revisionist
in his approach to history.
He repeatedly said,
"Ukraine is Russian".
And the sentence that he always
brought up, is that the sentence
of President Obama that Russia
would be only "a regional power".
And he really felt hurt
and insulted by that.
Putin was about to face
another humiliation.
These leaders huddled
around a small table decided that
they would suspend
taking part in G8 meetings
until Russia changed course.
Russia was kicked out of the club
for the world's leading economies
as the G8 became the G7.
These are industrialised countries,
and we clearly have seen that
they treat Russia like an outsider,
like the desire is just to leave
Russia as an agrarian country with
a lot of mineral resources -
like Bulgaria, for instance.
We were always on the periphery.
It's not a place for us.
GUNFIRE
In Ukraine, the situation was
threatening to explode.
Crimea had been taken with
little resistance.
But in the Eastern region of Donbas,
Ukrainian forces were now being
attacked by Russian-backed
separatists.
That summer, France would host
celebrations for the 70th
anniversary of the D-Day landings.
Putin's invitation had
been in doubt.
But the French President,
spotting the chance for
a diplomatic breakthrough,
arranged a dinner at the Elysee.
Hollande pressed Putin on
the need for peace talks.
The next day's celebrations
in Normandy would be a perfect
opportunity to speak face-to-face
with Ukraine's newly-elected
President, Petro Poroshenko.
President Putin did not recognise
this election.
So, we had a raising
tension on one hand,
and on the other hand, no contact.
So, we thought, "Why shouldn't
we try to bring them together"?
He seemed to be positive,
but we had no guarantee.
So, we had to organise this in a
kind of uncertainty.
The next day, Putin joined
19 other heads of state in Normandy.
For Ukraine's new President -
a billionaire who'd made
his money selling chocolate -
the pressure was on.
Of course, all the world leaders
were in Normandy for D-Day.
And I was surprised that
the line of the leaders who want
to shake hands with Obama,
President of the United States,
was significantly shorter than
the line of the leaders
who want to shake hands with Putin.
And then, I see how difficult
it would be for me,
for Ukrainians to stop Putin.
We had 20 minutes before the
huge lunch with all
the heads of state and government,
including Her Majesty the Queen.
We couldn't afford to be late,
because normally, you do not tell
the Queen of England that,
"Sorry, we are a bit late."
"You have to wait 15 minutes."
That doesn't work.
Putin hated the idea to
have this meeting.
He tried to do his best to avoid it.
And it happened while
Francois Hollande take his hands
and accompany him to the room.
Hollande had enlisted
the German Chancellor's support.
We got together in this
typical French chateau,
and they were sitting there,
it was very crisp.
When Putin entered, he said,
"OK, 10-15 minutes, no more".
"Why?"
"Because I have a very
busy schedule."
"OK." I started with the
demand for the immediate
liberation of the Crimea.
Putin said in Russian,
he said, "Ikh tam net".
Which means, "There is no
Russian troops there".
And then, Angela said, "Volodiya" -
she said it in Russian.
"Don't be stupid, so, come on."
After less than 20 minutes,
the leaders left for the lunch.
Nothing substantive had been agreed.
A month later, the US President had
a scheduled phone call with Putin.
Ukraine was top of the agenda.
Putin was saying we've both got
interests in Ukraine,
and Obama was saying words
to the effect of, "Vladimir",
"I don't have a national security
interest in Ukraine itself."
"But we have a national
security interest in"
"the sovereignty of Ukraine."
And at some point, Putin said
something about things happening.
The President of Russia
reported to President Obama that
a plane crash had just taken place
in the Donbas region.
None of us knew what he
was talking about.
There was a sense of,
"Oh, there's a war going on".
Maybe a helicopter has crashed.
Maybe some other crash
has taken place.
I left at that phone call
and went to run a meeting.
And halfway through it, one of
my staff members passes me a note
that says, "You better get
back to your office."
"There are suitcases and body parts
falling from the sky in Donbas."
A Boeing jet,
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17,
had come down in
the East of Ukraine,
about 30 miles from the
Russian border.
The first reports suggested it had
been shot out of the sky.
Literally within a few hours,
we hear from the security
intelligence agencies that the
Americans are pretty sure
that the missile came out of
separatist-held regions of Donbas,
and that it had been
supplied by the Russians.
I had a call with Putin where,
you know, he just lied.
He must've seen
the same evidence as me.
He probably knew more than me.
And this was what we used to call
in, sort of, Foreign Office terms,
it was the Russian approach
of deny and lie.
It was clear that it was a mistake.
But the so-called international
community, which means US policy
or European Union, the next day,
put the blame on us.
This is another step
to drive the wedge
and to make this wedge
larger and larger
between West and Russia.
With separatists controlling
the crash site,
investigators weren't able
to collect evidence
or recover victims' bodies.
The vast majority of the 298 people
on board had been Dutch nationals.
Four days after the disaster,
the Dutch Foreign Minister
attended a special meeting of
the United Nations.
Just for one minute,
I'm not addressing you as
representatives of your countries,
but as husbands and wives, fathers
and mothers, just imagine that
you first get the news that your
husband was killed.
And then, within 2-3 days,
you see images of some thug
removing the wedding band
from their hands.
I thought if I could create
the right momentum in
the security council, with all the
others putting pressure on Russia,
it would be very difficult
for them to refuse at least access,
so that we could, you know,
bring the remains home.
I call on the international
community on this Security Council,
on anyone with influence on
the situation on the ground,
allow us to bring the victims'
remains home to their loved ones.
They deserve to be home.
Frans Timmermans' speech
struck a chord.
Despite Russian resistance,
the UN agreed a resolution demanding
emergency services be given
access to the crash site.
He now wanted to make sure
that Putin would pay.
It's impossible for me to put
into words how the Dutch nation
mourned this and
how furious people were,
and how sad people were.
And that needed to find
a political outlet.
We needed to do something with that.
24 hours after addressing the UN,
Timmermans confronted his fellow
EU foreign ministers.
He wanted sanctions to hit Russia's
key sectors like energy and banking,
even if this meant
European economies suffered.
I said, "If we don't react now,
the Russians will interpret this as,
"sort of, a carte blanche
to do even more".
Straight away, it was clear that
there were two extremes in the room.
That, on the one hand, the Poles,
the Baltic states, as usual,
taking a very, very tough
line on Russia.
At the other end of the scale,
some of the Southern Europeans being
much more reluctant to move forward.
I said, "Surely you don't want
to be the one to prevent"
"our unity from being clear."
"How are you going to explain to
your media that you don't"
"want us to impose sanctions?"
Most countries didn't,
and probably still don't
feel threatened by Russia.
When a Lithuanian, or even a Pole
says something about Russia,
they are sceptical.
But when a really cool,
rational Dutchman says it,
it has a greater effect on
the western Europeans.
There were member states who,
I think, at that time were feeling
we'd done enough,
or maybe it was time to
relax our position.
Nobody suggested that, having
listened to Frans.
I think we have a good result,
one that should be satisfying
to Holland, to the Dutch public,
one that should make President Putin
realise that this time
we are for real, this is serious.
The EU, together with America,
imposed the toughest sanctions
Russia had faced since the Cold War,
targeting its energy, arms,
and finance sectors.
But some thought
they should go even further.
In the Pentagon, discussions had
started about whether the US should
send Ukraine its much-lauded
Javelin anti-tank missiles.
The most important thing for us
was to deter the Russians.
And so, we thought the Javelin
system was perfect because
they are defensive,
but they're lethal.
They will kill
the people in the tank.
CHEERING So the body
bags go back to Russia,
and Russia has a political problem.
Farkas took her pitch
to the White House,
where she met Obama's
top Russia advisers.
We were very concerned about
pouring fuel on the fire.
I said, "Let's not move up
a ladder of escalation
"that we are unlikely to win".
I said that Russia has a border
of 1,000 miles with Ukraine -
more than 1,000 miles.
Russia has uncontested
military superiority -
why should we play to
Russia's strength?
We should play to our strength
by hitting them with sanctions.
We already had a sense
that sanctions weren't going
to do it in the short run.
I deemed the situation as urgent
enough to merit, you know,
essentially exacting
a price in the form of,
sorry to say, Russian lives.
That price would be
the only thing that would cause
Vladimir Putin to stop and think.
I don't think that Vladimir Putin is
the kind of leader who's gonna say,
"Well, I just lost 100 soldiers.
I'm going to stop."
The United States did not want
to be going to war with Russia.
And so, there was concern about
what would be provocative.
We knew that the Europeans
were taking the lead in talks
with Putin, and so the United States
suddenly weighing in with weapons
would've been consequential,
and seemed to be problematic.
RAPID EXPLOSIONS
LOUD GUNSHO
The violence in Ukraine
was getting worse.
Reports were emerging of Russian
troops crossing the border
to fight alongside the separatists.
Ukraine's President now
had his first face-to-face meeting
with Putin since Normandy.
The fighting had increased,
they had just captured
ten Russian soldiers.
There were huge implications for how
this might go in the future.
I said, "Vladimir, this
is your soldiers on my soil."
"And we have the evidence
for the whole world."
And the Putin answer was,
"No, no, no,
this is not our soldiers".
"Vladimir, this is the ID tag
of your soldiers."
"And we have dozens and
dozens of them."
"No, no, no, this is not mine,
I don't know how you"
"OK, we have the orders that
they are regular soldiers"
"of the regular army."
"I double check -
no, they are on holiday."
"We called to their parents,
we called to their wives,"
"and they said that
they are in regular army."
"No, because they were in
regular army, but they just lost"
"their way when they're driving
in the Russian territory."
The leaders of
the European Union said,
"Putin, OK, stop. Stop, stop."
Poroshenko looked pretty drawn
and was visibly shaken.
It was clear that the bigger issues
were nowhere near resolution.
With no Western military support,
Ukraine's forces were being
overwhelmed by the rebels
armed by Russia.
By February,
it was looking desperate.
A critical battle was raging
around the city of Debaltseve -
a stronghold which, if breached,
would be disastrous for Ukraine.
The French and German leaders
called an emergency summit.
As they arrived, Poroshenko
grabbed a private word
with the German Chancellor.
Poroshenko told her very clearly
the defence forces are defeated,
they barely can hold the line.
If the Russians break through,
they can go all the way to Kyiv.
So, he needed - he needed an
agreement.
In a diplomat's life, you have
very few occasions where you have
directly at stake the life of -
literally the lives
of thousands of people.
If you fail,
if you have no compromise,
people can be killed
on the one hand.
But on the other hand, you cannot
accept any compromise because
by definition, this is the pressure
they are trying to put on you.
So, in a small corner
of this palace,
these negotiations took place.
A lot of people in there,
a big table in the middle
where all during the night,
food was brought in so that
it was used as a buffet.
In front of Putin, Poroshenko
wasn't going to reveal
how vulnerable his forces were.
I said, "What you want?"
"Do you want to kill
more Ukrainians?"
I said, "You have the
wrong information."
"Our soldiers is one of the best,"
"and we don't give you any
chance to do that."
I said, "I think that
the first important message
"should be immediate and
unconditional ceasefire".
Who can be against ceasefire?
Putin appeared to relent.
He agreed to an immediate ceasefire,
as long as Ukraine's forces
also pulled back.
All of a sudden, the Russians
backtracked on a very important part
and that was the timing
for the ceasefire.
With the talks on
the verge of collapse,
Hollande and Merkel
took Putin aside.
The compromise was that
the ceasefire would be
delayed for 48 hours.
I was worried about these 48 hours.
We had guarantees, verbal
guarantees, but we were not
100% sure that this opportunity
would not be used to attack.
A glimmer of hope
to end the bloodshed.
The warring parties in the Ukraine
conflict finally reached a deal,
paving the way for peace
after ten months of fighting.
Even after the 48 hours was up,
separatist forces continued
their assault on Debaltseve.
Five days later, they took the city.
Russian forces didn't advance
any further into Ukraine.
But the fighting in
the East never stopped,
and Crimea remained under
Russian control.
Do you know what is the achievement,
despite the fact that Russia
did not fulfil one tiny
thing from Minsk?
These documents give
Ukraine eight years
for building up army,
for building up economy,
and for building up global
pro-Ukrainian, anti-Putin coalition.
Three years later,
Putin took centre stage at
the opening of a bridge connecting
Crimea to Russia.
HORNS BEEP
The bridge was deemed a
violation of international law,
and the US and EU hit the companies
who built it with sanctions.
But Putin wasn't deterred.
Putin once said to me,
"Why are you defending Ukraine?"
"Ukraine is a creation of the CIA
and of the European Commission."
And I said to him, "Look, if it
was the European Commission
"that had created Ukraine,
I would probably know about it".
So, it's amazing that,
in Putin's mind,
Ukraine was an artificial
creation by others.
And I think that's part
of the problem.
I blame the West, us.
We are guilty that we allowed him to
grow to such a level of
intimidation.
Next time -
buoyed by his success in Crimea,
Putin asserts Russia's power
in the Middle East.
Putin doesn't care about
the loss of life.
He doesn't care about
the damage he inflicts,
he doesn't care about what
he does to civilians.