The West is essentially using Ukraine as a tool to fight Russia, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted, insisting that it should not hold back on arming Kiev.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Johnson chastised the West for what he sees as a lack of resolve in supporting Ukraine, stressing that it should set aside concerns about potential escalation.
“The problem has not been escalation; the problem has been the failure to escalate fast enough. It has been the dithering, the delay, and the nickel-and-diming of the [support] measures,” he said, lamenting the gridlock in the US Congress in late 2023 and early 2024 which prevented aid from flowing to Kiev. “That was a nightmare for Ukraine,” he added.
The same was true for the initial reluctance to approve Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia using British, French, and US-made long-range missiles, Johnson claimed, noting that Germany is still resisting pressure to make a similar move.
“It has been pathetic… Let’s face it: We’re waging a proxy war but not giving our proxies the ability to do the job. For years now, we’ve been allowing them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs, and it has been cruel,” Johnson stated.
According to the former prime minister, the West needs to make progress on Kiev’s accession to NATO, provide Ukraine with various military and logistical support without coming into direct conflict with Russia, and send it more money.
In addition, the international community, including Russia and Ukraine, “has to know where we… want this thing to end up,” Johnson stated. “Until and unless we clear it up, you won’t persuade [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to back down,” he claimed.
Moscow has accused Johnson of derailing the Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, claiming he advised Kiev to keep fighting. Staff close to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky have admitted that Johnson had an influential role. The former prime minister has denied the allegation as “an absolute steaming, stinking lie,” arguing that Kiev would never have agreed to Russia’s terms, which included the downsizing of the Ukrainian army and de facto recognition of territorial losses.
Moscow has repeatedly accused the West of using Ukraine as a “battering ram” against Russia, while warning that arms deliveries will not change the outcome of the conflict. It has also cautioned that the approval of strikes deep into Russia using foreign-made long-range weapons would be a serious escalation.
After Kiev carried out several such strikes, Russia retaliated by attacking a Ukrainian defense facility with its latest Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic missile.