Volodymyr Zelensky told Boris Johnson “I hope this is not the last time we speak” at the dawn of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the former PM’s comms chief.
Those were among the first words the pair shared during a 4am interaction on the night of the advance in February 2022, Guto Harri said, describing it as a “man-to-man thing” between the PM and the Ukrainian president.
Former GB News presenter Mr Harri told his Unprecedented podcast on Thursday that the two leaders were on the phone within minutes of Mr Johnson being woken to be told the news.
“‘Are you ok? Do you have good people around you?’ Mr Johnson asked,” according to Mr Harri.
“‘I'm fine. But you never know, when Russian Special Forces are moving in on your city. I just hope this isn't the last time we speak to each other’ Volodymyr replies,”
“And then the line went dead.”
Mr Harri is giving his accounts of key events of the Johnson administration on the Global Radio-run podcast.
He describes Mr Zelensky as being “breathless” on the phone but described events as being “harrowing” and “sobering”.
“We could not believe this was seriously underway,” Mr Harri said. “A superpower advancing on a neighbour who had done nothing to provoke it.
“Boris [Johnson] could not have been clearer that we were there to help Ukraine in any way we possibly could, using whatever we possibly deploy within reason.
“But at that moment in time, I think it was a man-to-man thing where he was basically imagining himself in that bunker in his own capital city with foreign troops advancing on that city and his life at risk.”
Despite lurching from crisis to crisis on the home front in 2022, Mr Johnson kept good relations with Kyiv and made a surprise visit in January of this year – months after leaving No 10. Mr Zelensky was in London earlier this week to meet current PM Rishi Sunak.
At the point of uncertainty as to who should be the next Tory leader in the autumn of last year, the Ukraine government tweeted “Better call Boris Johnson” before deleting the message.
Mr Harri is releasing his accounts of “a fascinating and turbulent period in British politics” every Thursday with the latest episode called “conflict, chaos and another c***”.
He has received praise for his recollection of the phone call from Kyiv but one Twitter user wrote: “Fascinating piece but I wish they were more reliable narrators for us to actually know.”
