Boris: Dithering over arms to Ukraine may lead to Russian victory
UKRAINE faces defeat on the battlefield within months because of the ‘dithering, doddering drift of the West’ over giving military aid, Boris Johnson warns today.
The former prime minister makes an impassioned plea for Western allies to ‘snap out of our sleep walk’ and hand Ukraine ‘the weapons they need’ to defeat tyrant Vladimir Putin’s advancing forces.
Failure to do so could see Kyiv fall by summer, he warns.
Writing in his weekly Saturday Mail column, he says: ‘Every month that we wait is a month in which more Ukrainian children are bombed and killed. Every week in which we fail to do the obvious – and give the Ukrainians the weapons they need – is a week in which Putin gets closer to his disgusting ambition, to torture a European country to death. Every day the pressure on the Ukrainians is now growing – and yet the solution is within our grasp.
‘We know what to do. We have done it before and we can easily do it again.’
America won the Cold War – with Margaret Thatcher’s backing – because of the huge sums poured into defence by the UK and US, he says, which outstripped Russia’s spending. However, ‘all those gains are now at risk’, he warns, adding: ‘The world in 2024 is on a knife-edge, with a real risk that Western democracies are about to be humiliated, and autocracies emboldened... because of our lassitude, our pathetic refusal to do what is necessary.’
He says there is ‘ much, much more’ Western allies could give, including a $60billion (£48billion) package of military aid which is being held up by US Republicans in the House of Representatives. Mr Johnson also calls on Germany to hand over Taurus missiles and for Britain to ramp up its manufacturing of munitions.
He says that Ukraine managed to resist defeat when Russia first invaded in February 2022 because they had already been given crucial Western support, including anti-tank missiles from the US and UK.
But now, he says, there is a shortage of shells and air defences, a point echoed by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in recent addresses to allies. Mr Johnson writes: ‘It is time for the West, including Britain, to snap out of our sleep-walk; to recover the spirit of Reagan and Thatcher, and invest in the defence of our freedoms.
‘ The simplest and most cost-effective way to defend freedom is to invest now in the defence of Ukraine.’
Mr Johnson has remained a staunch supporter of Kyiv since leaving office, making several trips to meet Mr Zelensky in a show of solidarity.
His backing in the early days of the conflict saw a street on the outskirts of Odesa named after him while a bakery in the capital named a pastry in his honour.