Former UK PM Boris Johnson writes report after visiting positions in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who was in the post during the early months of the full-scale war, has published a report after travelling to the front line in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia.
Source: European Pravda; Johnson in an op-ed for the Daily Mail
Details: Johnson visited positions of the 65th Brigade near Huliaipole and has written an extensive report on the frontline realities faced by Ukrainian troops and civilians, while also blasting Western countries for their continued failure to provide sufficient assistance to Ukraine.
He noted that he chose this particular section of the front for a reason: that Russian leader Vladimir Putin clearly has plans for Zaporizhzhia – a regional capital and important industrial city – which he has so far failed to realise.
In his piece – written in a cinematic style, rich in visual detail – Johnson describes frontline settlements and people living under daily strikes, locals continuing to keep shops and cafés open in the midst of ruins, roads covered by dozens of kilometres of netting to protect against small Russian drones, and how his group travels with a "Chuika" (meaning "sixth sense") – a Geiger counter designed to tune into the drones' radio frequencies in order to spot threats early and give the group a chance to escape from the vehicle.
Quote: "Welcome to what is called the Kill Zone, and welcome back to the war the west is in danger of forgetting. This is the conflict, remember, where the rights and wrongs are achingly obvious, where an innocent democratic European population is trying to fight off an autocratic regime."
Details: Regarding the war in the Middle East, Johnson noted the need "urgently to wake up to the reality that these are two fronts of the same war", arguing that Putin and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are two sides of the same coin (though Johnson employs a somewhat cruder comparison).
Johnson also criticises US calls for Ukraine to give up territory in Donetsk Oblast without a fight, quoting the press officer accompanying them as a counterargument. She is from Kramatorsk and joined the military in order to do something to defend her city.
"Nothing and no one will induce her to accept an accommodation with Putin. The Russian leader should meet her, and hear her point of view. So should Starmer. So should Trump," the former UK prime minister stresses.
"The real question is not whether Putin can capture all of Ukraine – because he can't – but whether we are doing enough to help the Ukrainians to push him back, and force him to the negotiating table. To judge by what I have seen the answer is that we are not. We are not doing anything like enough," he writes.
"It's no use just blaming Trump, and the US' refusal to give Tomahawks. The UK has its own long-range missiles, and so do the Germans. It's no use any of us Europeans blaming Trump when we are collectively sitting on hundreds of billions of Putin's frozen assets, which should obviously be unfrozen and used to help Ukraine," Johnson says.
He writes that although he can sense the Ukrainians' exhaustion from talking to people, nevertheless, after these 48 hours near the front he is "more convinced than ever that the Ukrainians are going to succeed, and that one day they will be shot of Putin's orc-like armies, and that this beautiful bountiful country will be free".
"The Ukrainians can win, and will win. But our delay and our timidity continue to cause unimaginable human suffering. We are right to say that the Ukrainians are fighting for all of us – so why the hell are we still short-changing them?" he concludes.
Background: On the fourth anniversary of the full-scale war, Boris Johnson said he saw no prospect of the Russo-Ukrainian war ending.
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