Boris Johnson pledges extra missiles for Kyiv and British troops to the region as he vows to ‘strengthen the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine’ after Putin ‘crossed red lines’ and tried to ‘Groznify’ whole cities
- PM said he was confident Ukraine could ultimately win the war against Russia
- But added that the West needs to continue sending supplies to help resistance
- He also hit back at the Kremlin after it effectively labelled him enemy No.1
- He earlier warned Putin that he had already crossed a ‘red line’ in his invasion
- Mr Johnson also accused the Kremlin of war crimes and said that the Russian despot should appear before the International Criminal Court
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tonight pledged to send extra missiles to Kyiv and British troops to NATO’s eastern flank during a summit of the alliance’s leaders.
He also accused Vladimir Putin of not taking Ukraine peace talks seriously and of crossing a ‘red line’ with his ‘barbaric’ invasion of the country, as NATO leaders met in Brussels to discuss their response to the crisis.
Mr Johnson painted a bleak picture of the Russian despot’s intentions, saying he wants to ‘double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine’ – a reference to the capital of Chechnya that was razed by Moscow’s forces in the 90s.
But the Prime Minister also struck an optimistic tone, saying that he was confident Ukraine could ultimately win the war and that further Western supplies of military equipment would strengthen ‘the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine as to make it in future indigestible to the Russian invaders.’
The British leader’s comments came during an interview in Brussels with BBC Newsnight to be aired tonight, and after NATO leaders met for the summit.
Earlier today, the Prime Minister said Britain would send more missiles to Ukraine, and announced a new deployment of UK troops to Bulgaria, while doubling personnel in Poland and Estonia to boost NATO on its eastern flanks.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tonight pledged to send extra missiles to Kyiv and British troops to NATO’s eastern flank during a summit of the alliance’s leaders
In this photo taken in February 2000, Russian soldiers rest at Minutka square, in Grozny, Chechnya. Mr Johnson painted a bleak picture of the Russian despot’s intentions, saying he wants to ‘double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine’ – a reference to the capital of Chechnya that was razed by Moscow’s forces in the 90s
Pictured: The site of a rocket explosion where a shopping mall used to be on March 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The rocket hit the shopping mall on March 20, 2022
‘Everybody wants peace, including the United Kingdom. If this could be solved It would be fantastic,’ The Prime Minister – who was today effectively labelled enemy number one among western leaders by the Kremlin – told the BBC.
‘I’ve got to tell you that I’m not optimistic that Vladimir Putin really wants that. I think that he’s decided to double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine.
‘We need to do more as the West, which involves intensifying the sanctions, sending more missiles as we announced today, 6,000 more missiles, toughening up our sanctions doing more to stop leakage of Russian gold, all the ways in which we can tighten the screw on him,’ he said in the interview.
The strength of Ukraine’s resistance has taken politicians and military experts around the world by surprise. As Thursday marked four weeks since Putin launched his invasion, Ukrainian forces showed sighs of pushing Moscow’s armies back.
Meanwhile, a NATO official on Wednesday estimated that up to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine so far and a total of up to 40,000 have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner or are missing.
On Ukraine’s chances of repelling Putin’s forces, Mr Johnson said: ‘I think Ukraine can certainly win. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, I think that the situation for the Ukrainians is grim, miserable.
‘I don’t think that we’ve seen anything like it for 80 years in Europe and what (Vladimir) Putin is doing is unconscionable.
‘But there’s a sense in which Putin has already failed or lost because I think that he had literally no idea that the Ukrainians were going to mount the resistance that they are and he totally misunderstood what Ukraine is.
‘And far from extinguishing Ukraine as a nation he is solidifying it.’
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and military representative to NATO Ben Bathurst leave NATO Headquarters following a summit on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Brussels, Belgium March 24, 2022
Joe Biden shook hands with Boris Johnson during the ‘family photo’ – despite a clip showing him being ‘snubbed’
President Joe Biden (left), Emmanuel Macron (center) and Boris Johnson (right) speak at the start of the NATO summit Thursday
Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, U.S. President Joe Biden, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stand next to each other during a NATO family photo
To continue mounting its resistance, Ukraine today renewed its call for help from the West, urging leaders to implement a no-fly zone and send more military equipment.
In an address to NATO leaders today, President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for ‘1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks’.
One of the demands Russia is insisting on in order for it to withdraw from Ukraine is for the possibility of its neighbour joining NATO to be ruled out.
But even if Ukraine never joins NATO, Mr Johnson said it is up to the West to create a deterrent to ensure Russia does not invade again in the future.
‘Our job is to do whatever we can to give them the tools to protect themselves,’ he said in the interview. ‘Over time, you can imagine that even if you can’t have an Article five guarantee for Ukraine – I mean, full membership of NATO, […] you can imagine that Western sympathisers of Ukraine will provide so much by way of equipment, training, intelligence as to create a kind of deterrence.
‘What I’m talking about is so fortifying, so strengthening the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine as to make it in future indigestible to the Russian invaders,’ he added.
However, speaking earlier today, Mr Johnson conceded it would be a challenge to give his Ukrainian counterpart the tanks he has demanded to help repel the Russian invasion of his country.
The Prime Minister also hit back at the Kremlin after it effectively labelled him enemy number one among western leaders, having earlier warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had already crossed a ‘red line’ in his ‘barbaric’ invasion.
Speaking to LBC ahead of today’s NATO summit, Mr Johnson suggested that the UK could next target Putin’s gold reserves, accused the Kremlin of ‘war crimes’ and said that the Russian despot should appear before the International Criminal Court.
After the summit this evening, the Prime Minister said it would ‘logistically’ be ‘very difficult’ to supply the Ukrainian president with the tanks and jets he asked for during a Nato summit on Wednesday.
But Mr Johnson said allies would strive to give Mr Zelensky weapons ‘in the quantity and of the quality’ he needs to defend his nation from the Russian invasion.
Mr Zelensky, who regularly speaks to the Prime Minister, did not bring up his longstanding demand for Nato to enforce a no-fly zone of Ukraine.
Instead, he pleaded when appearing virtually at the summit in Brussels for ‘1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks’.
Western allies have previously been hesitant about providing jets out of concerns it could further provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Johnson accepted Mr Zelensky wanted more from Nato, saying allies felt ‘agony’ about their ‘inability to do more given the constraints we face’.
‘What President Zelensky wants is to try to relieve Mariupol and to help the thousands of Ukrainian fighters in the city. To that end he does need armour, as he sees it,’ the Prime Minister told reporters.
‘We are looking at what we can do to help. But logistically it looks very difficult both with armour and with jets.’
Mr Johnson said ‘at the moment we’re looking at the equipment we think is more immediately valuable’, including the new package of 6,000 more missiles.
Pictured: Fire and smoke lights up the night sky, east of Kharkiv, March 24
Climbers drape and cover with wooden shields the sculptural monument of Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, who baptized Kievan Rus, to protect the oldest monument and symbol of the Ukrainian capital from Russian shelling, in Kyiv, on March 24, 2022
Civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on March 24, 2022
Refugees from conflict zones in the east of the Country wait in front of the Dnipro station to be able to access the train in order to leave for the west in Dnipro, Ukraine on March 24, 2022
Awkward! PM is briefly left looking for company at NATO summit group family photo
Boris Johnson was briefly left looking for company before the NATO family photo this morning at the summit to discuss the alliance’s response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Prime Minister, who had earlier called for NATO to act ‘harder’ against Russia as he arrived in Brussels ahead of the meeting, appeared to be left standing alone with his hands in his pocket.
A clip widely shared on social media seemed to show leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, greeting each other enthusiastically while ignoring Mr Johnson.
Critics were quick to claim the PM had been snubbed by Mr Macron and described the situation as ’embarrassing’.
However, a fuller version of the video shows the PM being embraced by Mr Macron before his brief moment alone.
Boris Johnson was briefly pictured looking around for company ahead of today’s Nato photo
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the state-owned RIA news agency as saying Mr Johnson is ‘the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian’.
Speaking at the press conference in Brussels, the Prime Minister said: ‘Absolutely not, least of all me. I think I’m probably the only Prime Minister in UK history to be called Boris, I think I have that distinction, and I’m not remotely anti-Russian.
‘But I think what we all agree is that what Vladimir Putin is doing, the way he’s leading Russia at the moment, is utterly catastrophic, that his invasion of Ukraine is inhuman and barbaric.
‘And the conduct of that invasion is now moving into the type of behaviour that, as I said before, we haven’t seen in the continent of Europe for 80 years, and it’s horrific.
‘So you can be sympathetic towards ordinary Russians, who are being so badly led, but you can be deeply hostile to the decisions of Vladimir Putin.’
Mr Johnson warned the Russian president that he would be hit with ‘very, very severe’ consequences if he used chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine as allies fear.
‘You have to have a bit of ambiguity about your response but I think it would be catastrophic for him if he were to do that,’ the Prime Minister said.
After the meeting, US President Joe Biden said the use of chemical weapons would be met with a ‘response in kind’ depending on the ‘nature of the use’.
A western official said that the use of such weapons would mark a ‘fundamental change’ in the Ukrainian conflict but said it was ‘highly unlikely’ it would be met with Nato troops in Ukraine.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg announced an agreement to provide assistance in the cyber-security sphere and equipment to protect against biological, chemical and nuclear threats.
And leaders approved the deployment of new Nato battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia to shore up the defence alliance’s eastern flank.
Mr Johnson urged a targeting of Mr Putin’s gold reserves to prevent him trying to get around sanctions as he announced a fresh wave of travel bans and asset freezes.
Among those targeted were the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organisation accused of plotting to assassinate Mr Zelensky.
The Foreign Office said a total of 1,000 fresh sanctions have been handed out since the invasion began, with 65 more announced after Mr Johnson arrived in Belgium.
They included Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler and Galina Danilchenko, who was installed by Moscow as the mayor of occupied Melitopol in south-east Ukraine.
Banks, a diamond producer and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, were also among the newly targeted.
Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, including next-generation light anti-tank weapons systems (Nlaws) and Javelin missiles.
It is also supplying and training Ukrainian troops in the use of Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles as well as providing body armour, helmets and combat boots.
The Government will provide an additional £4.1 million to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and Ukraine as well as new support for the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Pictured: NATO leaders pose for a family photo. FIRST ROW (from right): Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, Albania’s President Ilir Meta — SECOND ROW (from right): Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Germany’s ambassador to NATO Ruediger Koenig, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Croatia’s President Zoran Milanović, Canada’s President Justin Trudeau — THIRD ROW (from right): Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban, Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Latvia’s President Egils Levits, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, The Netherlands’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte — FOURTH ROW (from right): Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenia ‘s Prime Minister Janez Janša, President of Slovakia Zuzana Čaputová, President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa, President of Poland Andrzej Duda, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevsk
The month-long land, sea and air assault has hit residential areas, schools and hospitals in Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and the beseiged port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Britain on Thursday imposed sanctions on another wave of Russia’s lenders including Gazprombank and Alfa Bank, as well as a woman London said was the stepdaughter of Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s veteran foreign minister.
‘People talk about new red lines for chemical or biological, tactical nuclear weapons or whatever,’ Mr Johnson said on LBC radio ahead of the NATO summit.
‘For me, the red line already has been crossed. He’s bombing indiscriminately civilian centres, he’s causing huge numbers of causalities in wholly innocent populations.
The prime minister continued: ‘I think it is certainly true — as Joe Biden has said — that the Russian war machine is already guilty of war crimes, and it is right Russia should now be before the International Court of Justice.
‘President Putin should appear before the International Criminal Court. There is no question is what they are doing are war crimes.’
He added: ‘The harder our sanctions … the more we can do to help Ukraine … the faster this thing can be over.’
Johnson said that one option was to see if more can be done to prevent the Russian president from accessing his gold reserves, which could stop people buying Russian gold to convert it into hard currency.
The resolve to punish Moscow with massive sanctions was underlined by an emergency meeting of the G7 advanced economies, which brought Japan into the room with six NATO members, also in Brussels on Thursday.
NATO as a whole promised Kyiv new military support and assigned more troops to the alliance’s eastern flank during a trio of summits on Thursday aimed at showing Western unity against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
NATO leaders meeting in Brussels agreed to help Ukraine protect itself against any chemical, biological or nuclear attacks, and a U.S. official said Washington and allies were also working to provide Kyiv with anti-ship missiles.
‘The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people’s lives that are being lost and ruined,’ U.S. President Joe Biden told a news conference in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.’
However, the support pledges by leaders from countries that represent more than half of the world’s GDP fell short of satisfying Ukraine’s pleas for tighter sanctions, including an embargo on Russian energy.
Pictured: Maps showing the latest situation on the ground in Ukraine and Kyiv
Russia supplies 40% of the EU’s collective gas needs and more than a quarter of its oil imports, and countries most dependent on this supply – in particular Germany – are reluctant to take a step that would have a major economic impact.
In a move that made Europe’s dilemma worse, Putin said on Wednesday that ‘unfriendly’ countries must start paying in roubles for oil and gas, which would mean paying Russia hard currency to buy the roubles.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told reporters that ‘nobody will pay in roubles,’ while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rejected what she called blackmail.
Ukraine is a former Soviet republic whose aspirations to join the EU and NATO drew Moscow’s ire.
Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what Putin calls a ‘special military operation’ aimed at destroying Ukraine’s military capabilities and ‘denazifying’ it.
The invasion has killed thousands and driven a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes.
The bombardment has hit residential areas, schools and hospitals in Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and the besieged port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.
However, NATO again turned down pleas by Kyiv to defend Ukraine’s skies by imposing a no-fly zone and said it will not send troops to Ukraine for fear of being dragged into a full-on military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.
‘Allies do what they can to support Ukraine with weapons so Ukraine can defend itself,’ NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said when asked about Ukraine’s demands for more help, adding that the level of support was already ‘unprecedented.’
NATO leaders said in a joint statement that they were ‘united and resolute in our determination to oppose Russia’s aggression, aid the government and the people of Ukraine, and defend the security of all allies.’
French President Emmanuel Macron said that the world faced an ‘unprecedented food crisis’ that will be even worse in 12 to 18 months as Ukraine, a major grower of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower, will not be able to sow crops.
Western powers were ready to ramp up sanctions against Russia if necessary as they continue to isolate Moscow and force a ceasefire in Ukraine, Macron said.
The United States announced that it was targeting dozens of Russian defence companies and members of the ruling class with sanctions.
The 27-nation EU has rolled out four waves of sanctions against Moscow over the past month, but energy flows are the biggest loophole in measures that have otherwise largely frozen Russia out of world commerce.
EU leaders are expected, however, to agree at their summit to jointly buy gas and agree a deal with U.S. President Joe Biden to secure additional U.S. liquefied natural gas supplies.
NATO, which has already beefed up its eastern flanks to 40,000 troops spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea, agreed to set up new combat units in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
The alliance also warned that China should ‘abstain from supporting Russia’s war effort in any way, and to refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions.’
Biden said that China understood its economic future was more closely tied to the West than to Russia, after warning Beijing it could face consequences for aiding Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The U.S. official said the G7 and the EU – which will hold a summit with China on April 1 – would make clear any transactions involving Russian gold reserves are covered by sanctions, in a move aimed at stopping Russia from evading the penalties.
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