Ukraine values – and deserves – the support of the west

Editorial: Boris Johnson is the most prominent western leader to show up in Ukraine in its latest hour of need – and it’s appreciated

(Dave Brown)

At least there is one place where Boris Johnson is still assured of a warm welcome – Ukraine. No doubt the timing of his brief visit to Kiev was fortuitous, given his little local difficulties. It was an ideal moment to project his admittedly underdeveloped image as a global statesman, the very embodiment of the thrusting new post-Brexit “Global Britain”, and to remind his critics that there is more to politics than Covid law-breaking and sleaze.

The wide expanses of the Steppes provide an ideal backdrop for the prime minister to invite his enemies to contemplate wider horizons. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who, like Mr Johnson, has a background as a comedian, wouldn’t be so rude as to mention all those silly parties in Downing Street.

However cynically motivated, the visit will do some good. Ukraine genuinely values the support of western powers in its struggle to retain what’s left of its territorial integrity, and treasures any allies wanting to help it resist Russian bullying. Mr Johnson is the most prominent western leader to show up in Ukraine in its latest hour of need, and it’s appreciated.

This is a far away country of which we know little, but what happens to Ukraine is of vital importance to all European states. Where Germany has turned pacifist, France tries to steer its own third path to an understanding with Russia, and America sometimes sounds irresolute, Britain is at least the arsenal of stern democratic rhetoric. It is one moment when Churchillian inspiration will come in handy for Mr Johnson. More substantively, now – and not before time – the threat of economic sanctions against Russian individuals and entities is being made real with new laws targeting Kremlin cronies in London.

Nor is the prime minister arriving empty-handed. On top of equipment and advice already rendered to the Ukrainian armed forces, Mr Johnson is delivering a further £88m worth of assistance. No wonder that “God Save the Queen” has been trending on social media there, and union flags are seen in street demonstrations.

Perhaps such shows of western support, threats of economic sanctions and military back-up will make Vladimir Putin pause before making his next moves. It should do, because Russia will understand that a Ukraine fighting fiercely for its very existence with technologically advanced weapons freely supplied by the west may prove more formidable than the Kremlin assumes. The generals may recall how covertly supplied anti-aircraft missiles to the Mujahideen via Pakistan prolonged Russia’s bloody war of aggression in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

In the end though, it is not Britain that will count, but the stance the west takes as a whole. Mr Johnson likes to claim that he has been working hard to help coordinate the western response to Russian aggression, but he and everyone else knows that only America has the might to make Russia listen, even if Joe Biden is prone to the occasional gaffe.

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Apart from his tardiness in tightening the sanctions regime, it is hardly Mr Johnson’s fault that the west has been divided and weak in the face of Russian revanchism. It dates back almost a decade, since Moscow started to make designs on Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and indeed President Putin started to signal his ambition to emulate the old tsarist and Soviet imperialists.

Recent history doesn’t even deserve the term “appeasement”: Mr Putin has just taken what he likes without even the pretence of negotiation. The fact is that Russia seems not to have noticed whatever diplomatic and economic sanctions were imposed after President Obama’s red line was crossed and Crimea was annexed.

The recent US-Russia summit was a case in point – the future of Ukraine being discussed without the Ukrainians being invited, an ugly echo of the 1938 Munich conference which carved up Czechoslovakia without any input from that nation.

Anything that signals to the Kremlin and the wider Russian people that aggression in Ukraine will be met with punishment from the west will help deter invasion and prevent war. It may be bizarre to think that the sight of Boris Johnson would frighten anyone except his own backbenchers in marginal seats but, for what it’s worth, Russia will be clearer that Britain stands with Ukraine, and the prime minister is doing some good in Ukraine.