Friday, March 29

‘The world needs such leaders’: Ukraine welcomes Johnson victory | Boris Johnson


Boris Johnson’s confidence vote win was heralded in Ukraine on Monday night by a senior adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who thanked the prime minister for helping to protect “the free world from barbaric invasion”.

Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the president’s office, tweeted supportively within a couple of minutes of the result breaking at 11pm local time in Ukraine, accompanying it with a picture of Johnson with Zelenskiy on his surprise visit to Kyiv in April.

“Leadership is always a heavy burden,” Podolyak said, praising Johnson for being “one of the first who realized the menace of and stood by Zelenskiy to protect the free world from barbaric invasion. The world needs such leaders.”

Leadership is always a heavy burden. @BorisJohnson was one of the first who realized the menace of 🇷🇺 & stood by @ZelenskyyUa to protect the free world from barbaric invasion. The world needs such leaders. The UK is a Great friend of 🇺🇦. 🇬🇧 crown is a shield of democratic world. pic.twitter.com/BGjLvy8IhH

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) June 6, 2022

n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1533902519784595456″,”id”:”1533902519784595456″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”: false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”57765508-cc85-4ea3-ae3b-50bced61e168″}}”>

Leadership is always a heavy burden. @BorisJohnson was one of the first who realized the menace of 🇷🇺 & stood by @ZelenskyyUa to protect the free world from barbaric invasion. The world needs such leaders. The UK is a Great friend of 🇺🇦. 🇬🇧 crown is a shield of democratic world. pic.twitter.com/BGjLvy8IhH

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) June 6, 2022

Johnson had spoken directly to Zelenskiy earlier on Monday, hours after Britain confirmed he would send a handful of M270 rocket launchers to Ukraine and as he was desperately lobbying for support among Conservative MPs in Westminster.

Shortly after the result, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said that he knew what Ukraine’s president “would be thinking tonight”. Speaking in a TV interview, a clearly relieved minister added: “Zelenskiy will be punching the air because he knows his great ally Boris Johnson will be prime minister tomorrow morning.”

Few commentators believe that British support for Ukraine would alter significantly under any other Conservative leader but Johnson and Zelenskiy have struck up a rapport during the crisis.

In an overnight statement Zelenskiy, while not commenting on the result, thanked the prime minister for “fully understanding our needs” and providing “the weapons we so desperately need to protect the lives of our people”.

Johnson is a popular figure among Ukrainian politicians, partly because the UK is perceived to have been quick to supply western weapons in particular contrast to Germany, starting with supplying hundreds of NLAW anti-tank weapons in January, a month before Russia launched its unprovoked invasion. .

Kira Rudik, an MP who leads the liberal Golos party, said the prime minister was more popular than the US president, Joe Biden. She cited his high-security visit from him to Kyiv, during which he conducted a walkabout with Zelenskiy under armed guard in deserted streets. Biden has not visited since the war began.

Ukrainians were particularly pleased with an apology Johnson made in May during an address to the country’s politician parliament. The prime minister conceded that the west failed to respond firmly enough to Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014 and the separatist takeover of parts of the eastern Donbas region.

“This was a super important thing for us,” Rudik said, because it was one of the first times a western leader had acknowledged Ukraine faced a persistent long-term threat from Moscow that was unlikely to dissipate even if the current war ends or a ceasefire is put in place.




www.theguardian.com

Also Read  See photos of Ukrainians affected by invasion

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