London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 03, 2025

Johnson’s Kyiv visit achieved little but was a symbolic win for PM and Zelenskiy

Johnson’s Kyiv visit achieved little but was a symbolic win for PM and Zelenskiy

Analysis: the Ukraine invasion came at an opportune moment for the PM, though the damage of Partygate lingers on

Boris Johnson had been in a running argument with his security detail about the feasibility of a visit to Kyiv for weeks, and on Saturday he finally won his battle.

It was more than a fortnight after the prime ministers of Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland took the train to Kyiv on 15 March, at a time when the capital was under greater assault from Russia; a week after the president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, spoke to the Ukrainian parliament; and a day after the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and her foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, stood horrified in Bucha. Borrell, clearly moved by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s bravery, said he had returned with a clear to-do list.

But Johnson is the most high profile national leader to have visited since the war began, and if his walkabout in the capital had a heavily stage-managed air, he will have embedded his reputation with Zelenskiy as his greatest military ally.

His visit was ecstatically received in Ukraine. In his latest video address Zelenskiy heaped praise on the prime minister, whom he referred to warmly as Boris. “It was a great honour for me to welcome in our capital a sincere friend of Ukraine, Boris Johnson. His visit to our country demonstrates as clearly as possible there are no obstacles to freedom and to leadership,” Zelenskiy said.

Speaking to Ukrainians, he added: “Boris was among those who did not hesitate for a moment whether to help Ukraine.”

He said the UK’s assistance in terms of the tangible supply of defensive weapons and sanctions policy against Moscow “will remain forever in history”. “Ukraine will always be grateful to Boris and Britain for this,” he declared. He described London as the leader of what he called the “antiwar coalition” that was trying to force Russia to end its invasion and to seek peace.

A video of the Johnson-Zelenskiy walkabout in Kyiv on Saturday, posted by Ukraine’s defence ministry, clocked up an impressive 6.1m views. The respected defence correspondent of the Kyiv independent newspaper, Illia Ponomarenko, was enthralled by the footage. He described it on Twitter as “one of the greatest videos the internet has ever seen”.

In practical terms the visit could probably achieve little that the two men’s near daily phone calls on a secure line cannot, but the symbolism of the visit is hard to surpass. It serves a useful dual purpose. It normalises Kyiv and makes Johnson a little more extraordinary.

Britain has been the country most hostile to Russia for years, and well before the invasion it had developed a close military partnership with Ukraine. So Britain’s role in the past five week as Ukraine’s closest military ally is hardly a surprise. France and Germany as the guarantors of the Minsk accords were more deeply embedded in the diplomacy around Ukraine’s future, and Germany is only now emerging from its long, complex relationship with Russia and militarism.

That left a space vacant for the UK to adopt the post of the unambiguous military ally, chairing the ad hoc meetings on the supply of arms to Ukraine, a role Nato has not been able to fulfil. But Johnson at the outset was clear-minded about the gravity of what was at stake. In his largely self-penned speech on 15 February to the Munich security conference, he said explicitly that Vladimir Putin had to be seen to fail, and that if Zelenskiy was toppled it would be the west’s duty to arm the resistance.


It is true the war could not have come at a more opportune moment for the prime minister. If Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, had not belatedly intervened on 25 January in the Downing Street Partygate affair the full report commissioned by Downing Street from Sue Gray would have been published in late January, the number of letters from Tory MPs demanding Johnson’s resignation might well have gone past the trigger point, and Johnson might have been forced to resign, leaving him as caretaker prime minister at the point that Russian tanks started trundling over the Ukrainian border.

In practice, democracies can choose leaders and fight surrogate wars at the same time – in recent months there have been scheduled elections in France, Hungary, Malta and Portugal. But there is no appetite among Tory MPs, even if the prime minister is given a fixed-penalty notice for a breach of Covid regulations, to trigger a leadership election.

That does not mean Johnson can shape this into a Falklands moment. No British troops are directly involved, and this is not going to end with the union jack being hoisted above the Kremlin. The polls so far seem to have retained the turn against the Conservatives that started with Partygate.

But wars change perceptions and perspectives. It is still possible for Johnson to emerge as a more serious figure from this.

But even then the cheers of liberated people abroad can be dangerously alluring – and ephemeral. David Cameron stood alongside Nicolas Sarkozy to receive a rapturous reception from the people of Benghazi in Libya in 2011. Tony Blair was hailed by the people of Kosovo in 1999. Streets are named after John Major in Kurdistan. Winston Churchill saved Britain from Nazism. Much good it did them at the polls in the years that were to follow.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
Pickles are the latest craze among Generation Z in the United States.
Deadline Day Delivers Record £125m Isak Move and Donnarumma to City
Nestlé Removes CEO Laurent Freixe Following Undisclosed Relationship with Subordinate
Giuliani Seriously Injured in Accident – Trump to Award Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
EU is getting aggressive: Four AfD Candidates Die Unexpectedly Ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia Local Elections
Lula and Putin Hold Strategic BRICS Discussions Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
×