Invading Ukraine would be a “military disaster” for Russia, Boris Johnson has warned Vladimir Putin.
Speaking during a visit to Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the prime minister rejected suggestions he was exaggerating the threat from Russia, insisting that the massing of as many as 100,000 troops on the border represented a “clear and present danger”.
But he warned the Russian president that Ukraine would put up “a very fierce and bloody resistance” and the UK would impose sanctions the minute troops’ toecaps cross the border.
Standing alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said that Moscow was putting a gun to Kyiv’s head in a bid to redraw the security map of Europe in a way that could force not only Ukraine but also countries like Georgia and Moldova back into the Russian sphere of influence.
Mr Zelensky warned that any invasion would result not only in war between Ukraine and Russia, but “a European war – a full-fledged war”.
Mr Johnson denied that he had been distracted from the tensions in Ukraine by his domestic troubles over lockdown-busting parties at 10 Downing Street, despite having to cancel a scheduled phone call with Mr Putin on Monday as he dealt with the fallout from the Sue Gray report.
He is now due to speak with Mr Putin on Wednesday.
The prime minister said the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border was possibly the greatest act of hostility “towards the Ukraine in our lifetimes”.
“We have to face a grim reality, which is that as we stand here today, more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering on your border in perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility towards the Ukraine in our lifetimes,” he said.
“And the potential deployment dwarfs the 30,000 troops that Russia sent to invade Crimea in 2014.
“Since that time of course, everybody knows that 13,000 Ukrainians have been killed and Ukraine has been plunged into a decade of war.
“It goes without saying that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a political disaster, a humanitarian disaster, in my view it would also be for Russia, for the world, a military disaster as well.
“And the potential invasion completely flies in the face of President Putin’s claims to be acting in the interest of the Ukrainian people.”
Mr Johnson said sanctions will be automatically imposed if Russia invades Ukraine.
“It is vital that in Moscow they understand there will automaticity in the way we apply these sanctions so the minute there is a further incursion into sovereign Ukrainian territory they will apply.”
He said any conflict would come at a high cost.
“The Ukrainian army will fight. They will put a very, very very fierce and bloody resistance and I think that parents, mothers in Russia should reflect on that fact,” he said.
