British ex-Prime Minister Johnson makes serious accusations against the federal government. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Germany preferred Kiev's defeat to a long war, the former British prime minister said in an interview. Skepticism also prevailed in Italy.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused the German government of initially preferring a quick Ukrainian military defeat to a long conflict. As reported by the broadcaster CNN, Johnson said on Monday that the attitudes of the European countries in relation to the Russian invasion were very different.
"This thing was a huge shock," Johnson told the broadcaster. "We could see the Russian tactical battalion groups gathering, but different countries had very different perspectives." France denied Russia's attack plans to the end.
The German perspective at a certain point was "that it would be better if the whole thing was over quickly and Ukraine gave up," said Johnson, who cited "all sorts of reasonable economic reasons" for this approach. "I couldn't support that, I thought that was a disastrous view. But I can understand why they thought and felt that way."
Johnson also criticized Italy's initial reaction. Under the leadership of Mario Draghi, the government in Rome "simply said at one point that it could not support the position we are taking" because it was "massively" dependent on Russian hydrocarbons.
According to Johnson, however, skeptical attitudes changed quickly after the start of the war. Since then, the EU has "done excellently" in its opposition to Russia. Referring to Ukraine's president, Johnson said Volodymyr Zelenskyy's leadership was "absolutely outstanding". "He's a very brave guy. I think the story of this conflict would have been very, very different if he hadn't been there."
