Boris Johnson compared the Ukrainian people's fight for freedom to voting for Brexit and resisting 'wokeness', in a speech to Tory party members in Blackpool.
Speaking at the Conservative Spring Conference in Blackpool, the Prime Minister said: "I know that it's the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom every time.
"I can give you a couple of famous recent examples. When the British people voted for Brexit in such large numbers, I don't believe it was that 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."
He also gave as an example the British people's decision to come forward for Covid vaccinations.
"It was because they wanted to get on with their lives. They were fed up with being told what to do."
He delivered the speech in front of Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, who was given a standing ovation when he arrived.
"It is the invincible strength of this country," Mr Johnson said, "that we believe by and large and within the law that people should be able to do whatever they want providing they don't do harm to anyone else - and that's called freedom."
He went on: "We don't need to be woke. We just want to be free, and that's why talented people are fleeing Russia quite frankly right now. That's why they're flocking to the UK."
He added: "That's Putin's tragedy. There's a sense in which his disastrous error in Ukraine is itself an argument for democracy and freedom.
"Seriously, if Putin had a free press - if he had the BBC on his case - he would have known the truth. Or a version of it."
He said President Putin would have known the people of Ukraine would stand up to him, instead of being in an "echo chamber of sycophants."
Earlier, Mr Johnson had joked that President Putin's writings about the origins of the Russian people, which he used to justify the invasion, were "semi-mystical guff" and "Nostradamus meets Russian Wikipedia."
He added: "I think he was frightened of Ukraine for an entirely different reason.
"He was frightened of Ukraine because in Ukraine they have a free press and in Ukraine they have free elections."
Earlier, it emerged Mr Johnson's deputy chief of staff has warned advisors to prepare for an election next year.
According to remarks reported in the Times, top aide David Canzini said "the clock is ticking" - and while May 2024 is still the most likely date for an election, it could come as early as next autumn.
He's said to have made the comments during a No10 briefing last Friday.
Mr Canzini reportedly said the PM was "not out of the woods" on Partygate - despite Jacob Rees-Mogg yesterday branding the scandal "fluff".
Speaking at Tory Spring Conference in Blackpool, Mr Rees-Mogg said ukraine -crisis> Ukraine crisis has provided an opportunity for the Tories to ‘get away’ from Partygate
He described the scandal as “fundamentally trivial” and “fluff” - saying the “seriousness” of Vladimir Putin ’s invasion made it look like “nonsense.”
The party's Spring Conference - the first such event held by the party since the days of David Cameron - has been seen as an attempt by Boris Johnson to kick his team into election mode, and cement his position as leader into the next election.
In his speech, party chairman Oliver Dowden declared that the Tories, as of the May local elections, would be gearing up for a General Election poll within two years, issuing a call for candidates from "all walks of life".
He told reporters later on Friday that there was "plenty of time" to make fiscal decisions before voters elect the next government.
The former culture secretary appeared to suggest it was no accident that the party had returned to Blackpool - previously a mainstay on the party conference circuit - for the first time since 2007, saying his outfit needed to be the "party of mill towns and mining towns as well as the metropolis".
