Johnson slams West for delaying shipment of weaponry to Ukraine

He wrote this in his column for The Spectator, Ukrinform reports.

"The Ukrainians need man-portable air-defense systems (Manpads) to take out the Russian helicopters. They need Patriot-style systems to protect themselves against attack from the air, and they need better long-range artillery to take out the Russian positions. The Himars have been valuable, but the Russians have been effective in their counter-measures. The Ukrainians want and need the ATACMs, the long-range missile systems that are still being withheld by the US, and they need more missile systems such as the UK's Storm Shadow, which has proved to be extremely valuable," Johnson said.

According to him, if Western countries provide maximum military support to Ukraine, the benefits of this step will significantly exceed the relatively standard costs.

"If Putin wins – and all he has to do, to claim a victory, is hang on to at least a chunk of the territory he has taken since 24 February 2022 – the dreadful message will go round the world: that this was the moment when the democracies pledged to stand up to the autocracies, and we flunked it. The story of Ukraine will be of lion-hearted Ukrainian troops finally betrayed by western loss of nerve," the politician wrote.

In his opinion, Putin's victory would be a catastrophe for the West and for American leadership.

"And if, on the other hand, Ukraine wins and kicks Putin out – as, with our help, they can – then the reverse is true. Exactly the opposite message will be sent around the world: that we do care about democracy, that we are willing to back our principles, and that the West still has the guts to stick at something until we succeed," Johnson said.

He talked about how he visited wounded Ukrainian soldiers in hospitals in Kyiv and Lviv.

“I believe that victory will come; and I believed it all the more strongly after talking to those injured soldiers. You see it in their eyes. You hear it in the ferocity of their expressions, their rejoicing in land recaptured. Whatever you think about nationalism, or national feeling, it is the most potent force in politics – stronger even than religion – and in his insanity Putin has intensified and provoked the most powerful modern nationalism we have seen. His troops, tired, mistrustful, far from home, have nothing in their hearts to match it," Johnson said.

He also called on the West to urgently send military aid to Kyiv.

"That is why Putin will lose and Ukraine will eventually win; and since that is what must happen, and since that is what is going to happen, can we not, in the name of all that is holy, give the Ukrainians now the military assistance they need to bring matters to the speediest possible conclusion so that fewer human beings are thrown into the charnel-house of this pointless conflict? I have asked it before, and I ask it again: what the hell are we waiting for?" Johnson summed up.

Johnson has recently visited Kyiv and Lviv, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and took part in the annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES).

The United Kingdom is the second largest donor to Ukraine. London has already allocated GBP 4.6 billion in military assistance to Kyiv.