It sounded as if a friend were calling.
“Sorry, Emmanuel,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, answering his phone in the middle of an online news conference in late March. “I have just a conversation with journalists. Can I be back in some minutes?” On the other end of the phone was Emmanuel Macron, the French president, calling directly. He could wait, it seemed.
“Yeah, please. Thank you, thank you, Emmanuel! OK, great, great. Bye-bye,” Mr. Zelensky continued, before hanging up and telling the journalists that he talks to Mr. Macron nearly every day.
That call, according to interviews with 11 people who have worked closely with either Mr. Macron or Mr. Zelensky, reflected a genuine bond between the two leaders, marked by mutual respect, trust and personal regard. That connection, many of those people say, is built on the bedrock of one common interest — defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and deflecting further Russian encroachment.
The people interviewed were present at critical points since the two men met. And they offer a portrait of a relationship that goes beyond a strategic partnership over the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“They have a rare relationship of trust and accountability,” said Alice Rufo, the director general for international relations and strategy at the French defense ministry and who was Mr. Macron’s deputy diplomatic adviser until 2022.
The French president — who arrived Saturday morning in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, with three other European leaders — considers Mr. Zelensky a courageous leader who embodies Ukrainian resistance, is straightforward and is decisive, several of the people interviewed said. And Mr. Zelensky, who often calls Mr. Macron by his first name during speeches, considers Mr. Macron as someone who keeps his word, will advocate for Kyiv’s interests and help him navigate difficult relationships with foreign leaders like President Trump, they said.
The men no longer go through formal diplomatic channels, but pick up the phone and call each other directly — on secure lines, WhatsApp and Signal. Their conversations often have agendas, but they sometimes ring each other to check on something or sound off an idea. Occasionally, like after a Russian missile struck Mr. Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, killing 19 people and transforming a playground into a macabre morgue, Mr. Macron calls simply out of concern and friendship.
During Mr. Zelensky’s campaign for office, Mr. Macron welcomed the comedian turned politician to the Élysée Palace in Paris — a rare invitation for any candidate, let alone a relatively unknown and untried one. That helped Mr. Zelensky gain credibility at home. Soon after, Mr. Zelensky was elected president in a surprise landslide vote in April 2019.
“He was really grateful for the visible support from an established figure, a G7 head of state,” said Vadym Prystaiko, a former foreign affairs minister under Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Macron was interested in Mr. Zelensky’s campaign to unite his country, bring it closer to Europe and end the war with Russia, which began with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. And from the start, he liked the Ukrainian’s direct and energetic style, which echoed his own. They were both 41 — born only a month apart.
“Macron liked the story of Zelensky, the unexpected president, because Macron was the unexpected president as well,” said Nathalie Loiseau, a former foreign affairs minister under Mr. Macron. “They were both underdogs people hadn’t bet on.”
Mr. Zelensky’s first state visit as the newly elected Ukrainian president was to Paris in June 2019. Later that year, he returned for his first — and only — direct talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the war between their countries.
At the time, Mr. Macron himself was trying to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He spoke regularly with Mr. Putin, welcomed him several times to France and visited Moscow in February 2022, only weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, believing until the last moment that he could dissuade the Russian president from attacking.
Even after the invasion, Mr. Macron kept in contact with Mr. Putin. His emphasis on the need for Russian security and avoiding humiliation of Russia, however, drew criticism from many European colleagues and Ukrainians, who saw it as naïve and overly empathetic toward the aggressor.
Ukrainian troops transformed “Macron” into a Ukrainian verb meaning lots of talk, little action. And while Mr. Zelensky thanked France for humanitarian and diplomatic support, he and other top Ukrainian officials expressed frustration over the slow pace of French weapons deliveries.
That period was a low point in the relationship between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Macron, said Rym Momtaz, an expert in French foreign policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has traveled regularly with Mr. Macron for a book she is writing on the changing world order.
Then, four months into the war, Mr. Macron went to Kyiv and visited the shattered suburb of Irpin.
“That was the moment I witnessed their relationship change,” Ms. Loiseau said.
He came out of a long one-on-one meeting with Mr. Zelensky, she recounted. “Macron told me, ‘We are so lucky to have someone like him,’” she said. “‘We can work with him. We must bet on him. It’s worth it.’”
Mr. Macron stopped talking to Mr. Putin after Ukrainian soldiers liberated Bucha and discovered the massacre there. Speaking to the newspaper Le Figaro in early 2023, Mr. Zelensky said of Mr. Macron: “I think he’s changed. And he’s changed for real this time.”
In May 2023, Mr. Macron said in a speech in Bratislava, Slovakia, that he had not listened enough to longtime warnings from Eastern European countries about Russia’s expansionist aims, and he called for Western countries to offer security guarantees to Ukraine. Many analysts saw this as a major shift in the French president’s policy, closing the door on Russia and throwing his full weight into defending Ukraine.
“Ever since then, the relationship with Zelensky has been improving and deepening,” Ms. Momtaz said.
Some of the people interviewed who are close to the French president said they regretted that France had not delivered more military equipment or direct aid to Kyiv. But they believe Mr. Macron has proved his value to Mr. Zelensky by bringing the Ukrainian leader together with other leaders — including Mr. Trump, who had just secured re-election to office, in December at the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral — and by introducing taboo concepts in addressing the war.
For example, in February 2024, at a meeting in Paris about the war, Mr. Macron floated the idea of Europe putting troops in Ukraine to secure a cease-fire. The pushback was almost unanimous at the time. Now, more than a year later, detailed discussions of the makeup and support of that force are continuing.
“Macron’s utility for Zelensky isn’t that he’s just a buddy who sympathizes with him and does what he can to help. We’re in a war, we’re not in an emotional relationship,” said Catherine Colonna, another former French foreign minister. “France helps, but it also serves a great deal to put ideas on the table, to make the breach, to pave the way.”
Since Mr. Trump’s return to power in Washington, Mr. Macron has proved to be an important conduit and translator between the American president and Mr. Zelensky.
After Mr. Zelensky’s disastrous February visit to the White House, Mr. Macron talked with the two leaders by phone and helped to delicately stitch a rapprochement, according to advisers to both men.
“Macron is absolutely using his ability to get a hearing from Trump in order to help improve Zelensky’s position,” Ms. Momtaz said.
In recent months, the pace and content of conversations between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Macron have changed, said two diplomats close to Mr. Macron who insisted on anonymity in line with French political practice. Instead of military supplies, they now discuss cease-fire plans — both on the battlefield and with the White House.
Mr. Macron is briefed regularly on the intimate movements of the war by his army and intelligence services, according to Ms. Rufo, and in calls with Mr. Zelensky, he discusses the battlefield in detail — down to the names of frontline towns and villages.
“Emmanuel is an expert in war,” Mr. Zelensky told Bernard-Henri Lévy, a French intellectual who knows both leaders, in a recent interview for a new documentary on Ukraine, “Our War,” which is set for release in the United States next month by Cohen Media Group.
Mr. Lévy, who filmed meetings between the leaders for his documentary, said he witnessed a “brotherhood, a fraternity of soul and arms” between them.
For Mr. Zelensky, he said, Mr. Macron “has become more than an ally — I think he has become a friend.”
