Boris: Putin launched war because he feared new Russian revolution
BORIS JOHNSON yesterday said that Vladimir Putin’s ‘vicious and barbarian’ attack on Ukraine was launched amid panic that Russia could face another revolution.
The Prime Minister accused the Russian president of a brutal attempt to ‘snuff out the flame of freedom in Ukraine’ because he was terrified of having a democratic nation on his borders.
Addressing the Conservative spring conference in Blackpool, he said the UK needed to take ‘bold steps’ to wean itself off Russia’s fuel supplies and warned that the failure to stop Moscow would usher in a ‘new age of intimidation’.
Mr Johnson also made clear that the UK intends to press ahead with North Sea oil and gas development
‘He has tried to snuff out the flame of freedom’
– and potentially fracking – and compared the heroic Ukrainian resistance and desire to ‘choose freedom’ to the decision of the British people to vote for Brexit.
His rousing speech was given as:
• The devastated city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine appeared to be close to falling to Russian forces as relentless shelling hampered efforts to rescue hundreds trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre;
• Russia said it had unleashed an ‘unstoppable’ hypersonic missile – capable of speeds of up to 7,600 miles per hour – to destroy a Ukrainian arms dump. At least 50 of the country’s soldiers were feared dead in a separate missile attack on army barracks in the city of Mykolaiv;
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Putin to meet him face-to-face, warning that otherwise Russia will take ‘generations to recover’ from its mounting war losses. It came amid claims that the bodies of Russian soldiers are being sent home by train and planes in the dead of night to avoid attracting attention;
• The record-breaking Mail Force appeal announced a £1 million donation to the United Nations Refugee Agency and £250,000 to The Halo Trust, a charity that removes debris left behind by war, in particular land mines;
• Senior Royals, including the Queen and Prince Charles, are set to open some of their homes to Ukrainian refugees;
• A charity Soccer Aid match has been moved from Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium after objections from celebrity players about its link to its owner, sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Describing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a ‘catastrophic mistake’, Mr Johnson said: ‘He was frightened of Ukraine because in Ukraine they have a free press and in Ukraine they have free elections ...
‘With every year that Ukraine progressed – not always easily – towards freedom and democracy and open markets, he feared the Ukrainian example. And he feared the implicit reproach to himself.’
The Prime Minister added: ‘It’s precisely because Ukraine and Russia have been so historically close that he has been terrified of the effect of that Ukrainian model on him and on Russia. And he’s been in a total panic about a so-called colour revolution [such as the Orange Revolution demonstrations in 2004 in Ukraine after a rigged election] in Moscow itself.’
Invoking Britain’s exit from the EU, he went on: ‘I know that it’s the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom, every time... When the British people voted for Brexit, in such large, large numbers, I don’t believe it was because they were remotely hostile to foreigners. It’s because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself.’
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti Patel has sought to end criticism of visa checks on Ukrainian refugees. She said: ‘The truth is that a very small number of people can wreak utter havoc, and Russia has a history of covert hostile activity.’