Boris Johnson has confronted US Republicans’ skepticism about delivering more arms to Ukraine and said it is time to give Kyiv the tools – including F16 planes – to reclaim land Vladimir Putin has occupied since the invasion dated February 24th.
He also said he now supports ending the ambiguity by allowing Ukraine to join NATO.
As support for Ukraine dwindled in US opinion polls, Johnson has used a speech to the Atlantic Council think tank, television appearances, an article in the Washington Post and meetings with senior Republican senators to try to bolster US resolve. His visit was understood as freelance work and not on behalf of Number 10.
He said, “Give them the low-firing artillery systems, give them the tanks, give them the planes, because they have a plan. They know what to do.”
He dismissed claims that Ukrainians were unable to fly sophisticated US planes and said Ukraine had already demonstrated its ability to use modern NATO technology. Referring to the repeated debates within Europe about the risk of escalation when providing a particular weapon, he said that these debates have all ended with the consent to provide the arms. “Let’s do it now and end this delay because that’s humane.”
Admitting that his mindset had changed, he said offering NATO membership to Ukraine was an inescapable logic and said Putin had ended the argument about keeping Ukraine out of NATO by invading it.
In an attempt to destroy Republican talking points over Ukraine, he urged the US to recognize that winning the war was a cost savings, saying the cost of defending the borders of the old Soviet Union would be in the long run be infinitely higher.
“For a relatively small outlay of expenditure we will have greatly strengthened the entire Euro-Atlantic region and consider that the American contribution is noble and huge but it is still only 5% or 6% of the annual US defense budget so far , and has helped demote about 20% – some say 50% – of Putin’s war machine.
“To those who say we could denude our own arsenals by providing support, I say what’s the point of deploying tanks and planes in North Carolina or North Rhine-Westphalia if the Ukrainians could deploy them now where they need them.” going to help ensure our collective security for decades?”
He contradicted another largely Republican concern, saying: “Putin will not use nuclear weapons because he would immediately wipe out the last flicker of Chinese support, he would lose every one of the world’s swing voters from India to Africa to Latin America, he would see his own people in… Frightening those who would live in fear of the consequences for them, it would plunge Russia into such a cryogenic freeze of economic isolation that the current sanctions regimes would seem like a blessing.”
A Russian conquest of Kiev “would have encouraged the Kremlin to step up intimidation and threats against all countries and regions on the fringes of the old Soviet empire. It would have told the Chinese everything they need to know about our reluctance to stand up for freedom and democracy in the South China Seas or anywhere else. It would have sent a signal to every opportunist autocrat around the world that international borders are replaceable and fragile and can be changed by force, and we won’t do anything about it. And then the blame for the whole Ukrainian tragedy will fall on us.”
Johnson said he met several senior senators in Washington this week, including Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The former prime minister also defended Brexit, saying it gave Britain more freedom to challenge some of the French and German mindsets that dominated the Normandy format, the main vehicle the EU used on the Ukraine issue. “Because of Brexit, we were able to do things differently,” he claimed.