Moscow mocks Boris Johnson's fighter jet stunt

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has ridiculed a video of the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson flying in a Typhoon fighter jet; calling it a manifestation of “English humor.”

Last week, the outgoing prime minister took part in a demonstration flight at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, England. In a video, which was released by the government, Johnson is seen at the controls of the jet and then gives a thumbs up to two air-to-air refueling aircraft.

“Boris Johnson seems to show that he likes exorbitant fuel prices, and that refueling is only for celestial beings. English humor,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram amid a worsening world energy crisis, caused in part by Western sanctions on Russia.

Meanwhile, speaking at Farnborough Air Show on Monday, Johnson shared his experience of the flight, his first one in more than 25 years, showing that energy issues were indeed very much on his mind.

He confessed that when he “came back to consciousness” from the loop the loops he had made, he started thinking about how his government had been “reclaiming Doggerland, harvesting the drained prairies of the North Sea” and how it was helping to deliver “a long-term sustainable solution” to the country’s energy needs “ending any dependence on Putin whatsoever.”

Following the launch of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, the US, the EU, the UK and many other countries imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, including restrictions on its energy exports. As a result, the countries with a high dependence on Russian supplies are now facing economic devastation and the prospect of energy rationing. The UK, while not directly dependent on Russia, is suffering too, as energy bills and the cost of living grows amid an increase in wholesale natural gas prices. President Vladimir Putin previously accused EU leaders of committing economic “suicide” by attempting to give up Russian energy.