Boris Johnson has confronted US Republicans’ scepticism about providing more arms to Ukraine, saying it was time to give Kyiv the tools – including F16 aircrafts – to reclaim land taken by Vladimir Putin since the 24 February invasion.
He also said he now supported ending the ambiguity by allowing Ukraine to join Nato.
With support for Ukraine slipping in US opinion polls, Johnson has used a speech to the Atlantic Council thinktank, TV appearances, an article in the Washington Post and meetings with senior Republican senators to try to stiffen US resolve. His visit was understood to be a freelance operation and not on behalf of Number 10.
He said: “Give them the deep fire artillery systems, give them the tanks, give them the planes, because they have a plan. They know what they need to do.”
He dismissed claims that the Ukrainians would be unable to fly sophisticated US planes, saying Ukraine had already shown their ability to use modern Nato technology. Referring to the repeated debates inside Europe about the risk of escalation if a specific weapon was provided, he said that these debates had all ended with agreement to provide the weapons. “Let us do it now and end this delay because that is the humane thing to do.”
Admitting his thinking had changed, he said there was an inescapable logic to offering Ukraine Nato membership, saying Putin had ended the argument to keep Ukraine out of Nato by invading.
In an attempt to demolish Republican talking points on Ukraine he urged the US to realise that it was a cost-saving to win the war, saying the cost of defending the borders of the old Soviet Union would be infinitely higher in the long run.
“For a relatively tiny outlay in expenditure, we will have greatly strengthened the entire Euro Atlantic area, and bear in mind that America’s contribution is noble and huge, but it is still only 5% or 6% of the annual US defence budget so far, and has helped to degrade about 20% – some say 50% – of Putin’s war machine.
“To those who say we may be denuding our own arsenals by giving the support, I say what is the point in deploying tanks and planes in North Carolina or North Rhine-Westphalia when Ukrainians could be using them now, where they are needed to help assure our collective security for decades?”
Challenging another largely Republican concern, he said: “Putin won’t use nuclear weapons, because he would instantly extinguish the last flicker of Chinese support, he would lose every one of the world’s swing voters from India to Africa, to Latin America, he would terrify his own people who would live in dread of the consequences for them, he would plunge Russia into such a cryogenic freeze of economic isolation as to make the present sanctions regimes seem like a blessing.”
A Russian capture of Kyiv “would have emboldened the Kremlin to increase the intimidation and threats towards every country and region on the fringes of the old Soviet empire. It would have told the Chinese all they need to know about our reluctance to stand up for freedom and democracy in the South China seas or anywhere. It would have sent a signal to every opportunist autocrat around the world that international borders are fungible and frangible and can be changed by force, and we will not do a damn thing to stop it. And the guilt for the whole Ukrainian tragedy will then be upon us.”
Johnson said he had met several top senators in Washington this week, including Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The former prime minister also defended Brexit, saying it had given the UK greater freedom to challenge some of the thinking of France and Germany that dominated the Normandy format, the main means by which the EU related to the Ukraine issue. “Because of Brexit we have been able to do things differently,” he claimed.
