Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the US to massively increase support for Ukraine or risk being weakened as freedom is undermined around the world.
Johnson said the West must act urgently or suffer the consequences of Russian President Vladimir Putin reestablishing the Soviet “evil empire” and setting the conditions for a new wave of imperialist expansion.
“I hope and pray that whoever wins the presidency will have the wisdom and the courage to give Ukraine the military, financial, and political assistance it needs to get this war done and get it won,” Johnson said at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) Forum in Washington on September 26. “I cannot believe that any American president, Republican or otherwise, is going to allow a Vladimir Putin or anybody else to rebuild that empire and make America weak again.”
Western policy on Ukraine is failing, and the US and its allies need to step up their support so their actions match their words, Johnson said.
“After two and a half years of bloodshed, I’m afraid that Western policy is not just starting to look inadequate, but actually cruel, because we are willing the end but failing to deliver the means,” he said. “We constantly hail the heroism of the Ukrainians, but we force them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.”
Western leaders repeatedly tell the Ukrainians that they are engaged in a shared fight for universal values of freedom and democracy, but have delivered inadequate aid to ensure they win that fight, Johnson said.
“We should be doing what is necessary to help them to win, not just to survive, but to defeat Putin and to preserve Ukraine as a free, independent and sovereign European country,” he said. “If, as people increasingly suggest, this war were now to be frozen with a partitioned Ukraine and Russia still permanently capable of threatening, if not invading, what is left of that country, it would be a total disaster for all of us.”
Without Putin’s defeat, countries around the periphery of the former Soviet Union would feel permanently threatened, and China would be emboldened to take Taiwan by force, Johnson warned.
The former prime minister, who was a leading figure in the global response to the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and has been a cheerleader for Ukraine since he was forced out of office five months later, set out a plan for helping Kyiv win.
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Firstly, the Ukrainians must be given permission to make full use of the weapons they have, he said, responding to limitations on the use of long-range munitions imposed by Washington and other Western capitals.
“You try explaining to a mutilated Ukrainian soldier, why the Ukrainians can’t use [Anglo-French] Storm Shadow missiles to attack the Russian air bases from which they are launching the glide bombs that are doing such appalling damage to their positions,” he said. “Try explaining to them why they can’t do what Putin is doing to their own country.”
The argument that allowing the weapons to be used would escalate the conflict has been used to delay every increase in armaments for Ukraine throughout the conflict, he said, and the escalation has not materialized.
“Every single time, the argument about the risk of escalation from Vladimir Putin was proved to be absolute nonsense, because the guy who actually fears escalation is Putin himself,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to stop using the so-called threat of escalation as an excuse for vacillation.”
Secondly, the West must give massive financial support to Kyiv, he said. Johnson backed a proposal from former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for a $500bn lend-lease program for Ukraine, similar to the one provided to the UK by the US during World War II.
Thirdly, Ukraine should be admitted into NATO now, rather than waiting for the end of the war. They have “chosen the West,” Johnson said, and should be fully accepted into the community of free and democratic nations.
The area of Ukraine still controlled by Kyiv could be given a NATO Article 5 security guarantee immediately without prejudicing Kyiv’s claim to its full 1991 territory, Johnson said.
“It is absolutely critical that we make this leap and do this now, because without that security guarantee, there can be no peace process,” he said. “There could be no armistice, no negotiation, no talks with Russia.”
Such a move would bring clarity for all sides and reaffirm where Ukraine and Russia’s borders lie, Johnson said.
“The Russians have got to get used to the idea that they no longer have a sphere of influence. They have no near abroad. There is no more Soviet empire,” Johnson said. “And there is only one country, in my view, that can make this happen, that can deliver on this agenda, and that is, of course, the United States of America.”
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Europe’s Edge
CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America.
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