Boris Johnson has never been to Ukraine and seen with his own eyes the atrocities the Russians inflicted on the Ukrainians, those cruel methods of reprisal against unarmed Ukrainian civilians, and the troubles that the Russians brought to Ukraine.
"Come with me into the ocher mud of the churchyard in Bucha, past the bullet-riddled church of St Andrew. Stand over the graves of some of the 416 inhabitants of this town – 9 of them children – who were shot by the Russians in an attempt to terrify the rest. Look at the photos of their corpses, their hands tied behind their backs, left in the street to rot or to be eaten by dogs. Stand with me by the blackened remains of an apartment block in Borodyanka, the twisted plumbing and smashed children's toys. Look at what just one of Putin's 500kg airborne bombs can do to an eight-story building. Try to meet the pleading eyes of the people who pulled 162 corpses from the rubble, and who searched for the 28 whose remains were never found. Look at those brave Ukrainians and answer me this question: just what the hell are we waiting for? What happened here in the suburbs of Kyiv was sickening. But it is happening in every part of Ukraine that Putin continues to occupy: torture, rape, mass murder," Boris Johnson for The Daily Mail.
Johnson describes the portrait of Putin and calls him a man with no conscience who has long abandoned the least respect for the laws of war. And the longer the world community delays the delivery of the necessary weapons, the more innocent people die — not only Ukrainians, but also those who were sent to the meat grinder by Russia. Johnson emphasizes again: what reasons do those who can stop it continue to have?
"Let us be in no doubt. Ukraine is winning and will win this war. Ukrainian hearts are high and their determination is hardening every day. Drive around the outskirts of Kyiv, and you will see how ferociously they fought to protect their hearths and homes, and how ludicrously Putin misunderstood his enemy."
Boris Johnson calls Ukraine's victory "inevitable". As an example of his rightness, the politician points to the ingenuity with which the Ukrainians use weapons they have already received from their partners. Many of these weapons were made in Belfast. Johnson draws the reader's attention to the fact that the Ukrainians defeated the army, which was considered "the most formidable in the world."
"The Ukrainian expulsion of Russian troops from Kyiv will go down as one of the great feats of arms of modern times. They did it again in Kharkiv, and again in Kherson. They can, and will, drive Putin out of the whole of Ukraine. This is now a war of independence, and history teaches us that wars of independence only end one way. The question is when."
Ukrainians know what they are fighting for. At the same time, the Russian army is demoralized. The army consists of untrained recruits and frightened representatives of national minorities. They are limited not only by the quantity, but also by the quality of the weapons. This is another example of how Putin devalues human life.
To defeat Putin, you need to provide Ukraine with weapons, put Russia in a "cryogenic economic exclusion" with the help of sanctions. This move will cause the Russians themselves to be horrified by the worldwide exile that Putin and his "pointless Kremlinology" have driven out of the country. Johnson calls not to manipulate the term “conflict escalation” and not to be afraid that something will provoke Putin to use nuclear weapons.
"Why should we fear to provoke him, when he has already shown what he will do without the slightest provocation? How can he ''escalate'', when he has already reached such a pitch of barbarism that he is systematically pulverising the homes of civilians? Will he escalate with a battlefield nuclear weapon? Really? I don't believe it for a second. If Putin were so insane as to go nuclear, he would in a trice lose all the world's swing voters – from Africa, the Middle East, Asia – who are currently willing to cut him so much slack."
The British politician emphasizes that nothing will stop the Ukrainians on the way of their fight for their freedom. This war showed something that no one had seen before – "Ukraine must join NATO.
"Those heroic people are fighting for all of us. The Ukrainians are fighting for the Georgians, for the Moldovans, for the Baltic states, for the Poles – for anyone who might in due time be threatened by Putin's crazed revanchism and neo-imperialism. They are fighting for the principle that nations should not have their borders changed by force."
Boris Johnson says Ukraine's victory will be a signal to the world. And now the task of the whole world is to stop focusing on the cost of weapons, but on the preciousness of human lives and peace.
"If you want to minimize the world's economic pain, if you want to avoid the enormous cost – in blood and treasure – of letting this tragedy stretch on, then let's together do the obvious thing. Let's give the Ukrainians all they need to win now."
