He is strong and clever with very cool hair: residents wax lyrical on Boris Johnson Street

With its rows of well-kept homes and middle-aged couples out walking their dogs, the beach resort of Fontanka is Ukraine’s answer to Bexhill-on-sea or Bognor Regis. Just two things stand out: the distant thump of naval guns out in the Black Sea – and a street named after a man regarded locally as one of history’s great leaders. Mikhail Gorbachev Street, perhaps? No. Stalin Avenue? Scrapped years ago.

Here’s a clue: he has more hair than Nikita Khrushchev, and like Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, was once something of a comedian.

Boris Johnson Street was named by Fontanka town council two weeks ago, to thank Britain for its military support during Ukraine’s war with Russia. The Prime Minister may have his critics at home but, just as Tony Blair is feted in Kosovo and George W Bush is a hero in Iraqi Kurdistan, here in Ukraine Mr Johnson is hailed as a champion in the country’s liberation struggle.

So much so, that when he prepared to make a speech online to the Ukrainian parliament yesterday, Boris Johnson Street’s residents responded in a manner all too rare among jaded British voters. First, they made no snide mention of partygate or fixedpenalty notices. And second, they were actually keen to hear what the Prime Minister had to say.

“I heard that your Prime Minister’s speech was coming up, and yes, I certainly want to listen,” Alex Lerner, 62, told The Daily Telegraph. “He is a very strong and clever and brave man. It is wonderful that this street has been named after him, as it is important for us Ukrainians to know not just our own heroes, but those from overseas who helped our country.”

True, as honorary landmarks go, Boris Johnson Street is not quite up there with Paris’s Avenue Charles De Gaulle, let alone America’s Mount Rushmore.

An unremarkable residential side street near Fontanka’s beach, lined with lilac bushes, it is far too narrow to host a VIP ticker-tape parade. And until last week, it was actually known as Vladimir Mayakovsky Street, in honour of an early Communist-era poet.

However, as one of Joseph Stalin’s favourite bards, Mr Mayakovsky has now fallen victim to wartime cancel culture. In the wake of Russia’s invasion, his street and several others with Soviet-era connotations have been earmarked for rebranding.

Nor is Boris Johnson Street an entirely welcoming place right now. With many residents having fled the country, guard dogs bark ferociously in nearly every front yard.

Mr Lerner goes on patrols as a neighbourhood watch volunteer, and when he noticed the British visitors from The Telegraph, he asked for ID and called the police.

“We are checking that there are no looters or drug addicts or alcoholics trying to break into houses here,” he explained apologetically. “We thought you might have been one of them.”

Once reassured, however, he waxed lyrical about Mr Johnson, putting the Prime Minister on a pedestal previously occupied largely by his favourite rock artists – Queen,

Elton John, and Jimi Hendrix. Eccentrically dressed in a Stetson hat and double denim, he appeared to detect a kindred flamboyance in Mr Johnson, whose tousled hair and shambling manner are now as familiar in Ukraine as in Britain.

“Winston Churchill, too, was considered a freak in his day, drinking brandy and smoking cigars all day, and so is Boris Johnson. But that is why I like your Prime Minister – his lack of care for how he looks is the expression of a free man, just as the Western rock musicians I grew up listening to were also free in their souls.”

Further down the road, the female trio of Nadia Dvinina, 59, Nadia Yarimchuk, 62, and Raisa Stayanova offered the kind of pithy endorsement that Tory image consultants charge a fortune for.

“Boris Johnson’s hair is very cool and he is a cool person and he has a good soul,” said Ms Stayanova, waving her hands enthusiastically.