Johnson channels Churchill – but will it help Ukraine?
“Ukraine will win” against Russia and “will be free”, Boris Johnson declared today, as he appeared on a screen in Kyiv’s parliament, praising the country for having “exploded the myth of Putin’s invincibility.”
Johnson is the first world leader to address the Verkhovna Rada since the war began. He hailed Ukraine’s resistance against tyranny as an exemplar to the world, and echoed the words of Winston Churchill, drawing historical comparisons with Britain’s fight against Nazi Germany.
The PM described the fierce Ukrainian resistance witnessed since February as “an epic chapter in Ukraine’s national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.”
He also unveiled the latest tranche of military support for Kyiv, worth £300m, which includes electronic warfare equipment, night vision goggles and 13 armoured vehicles to rescue civilians from besieged areas of Eastern Ukraine.
Although Johnson insists the UK is “leading the world” in helping Ukraine, he also admitted to the country’s MPs that Britain was ”too slow” to act over Russian aggression.
After this slow start, the tone of Ukraine’s allies has grown decidedly bolder. The UK government’s initial talk of helping Ukrainians “protect” or “defend” themselves is shifting to talk of assisting Ukraine in actively “defeating” Russia.
During Liz Truss’ recent speech at Mansion House, she set the ambitious aim of driving Russia back to its pre-2014 borders – in other words, completely out of Crimea.
We’re seeing a similar shift in the US, where, last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said: “Ukraine clearly believes that it can win, and so does everyone here.”
This bolder talk is unsurprising given how the West underestimated Ukraine’s ability to stall Russian advances. Indeed, Melinda Simmons, the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine, returned to Kyiv today, after the embassy was abandoned at the start of the invasion, out of fear of an imminent Russian takeover.
Yet while this escalatory language may well play into Johnson’s hands domestically ahead of Thursday’s local elections, others fear it is irresponsible.
To suggest the West now seeks Russia’s unconditional surrender – almost certainly the only terms on which Putin would give up Crimea – will inevitably prolong the bloodshed.
Retired British colonel, Simon Diggins, says: “Grandiose statements by Western leaders, indicating that we now seek a strategic defeat of Russia, only help the Russian narrative that this is an existential war of national survival for them.”
Certainly, the likelihood of achieving a Kyiv-Moscow peace deal any time soon looks increasingly slim.
This morning, Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, blamed Russian atrocities in Bucha for the stalled peace talks: “Many Ukrainians can’t even imagine how we could sit at the table of negotiations with these people now.
“Reasonable politicians will remind us that actually we have to sit at the table, because all the worst wars ended up in forms of negotiations. But, frankly speaking, many Ukrainians believe that we have to defeat them physically now.”
It’s perhaps not surprising that Finland and Sweden – backed today by German chancellor, Olaf Scholz – are fast-tracking towards NATO membership as fears grow that the war will spill over into their territories.