Boris Johnson has warned that British troops could be ordered to defend Ukraine if US President-elect Donald Trump abandons the war-torn nation.
The former prime minister warned a Russian victory would lead to an “even bigger threat on our borders”.
He also pointed out that Mr Trump gave Kyiv Javelin shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons that played a crucial role in repelling Russian forces as they approached the Ukrainian capital.
But in an interview with GB News, Mr Johnson warned: “If Ukraine goes down, then we face an even bigger threat on our borders, the borders of the European continent wherever the democracies butt up against Russia.
“So, it’ll be the Baltic states. It’ll be in Georgia. You’ll see the impact of a Ukrainian defeat in the Pacific theatre. You’ll see it in the South China Sea.
“What I’m saying is for people watching, thinking ‘why are we supporting the Ukrainians?’
“It’s because otherwise our collective security will be really degraded by a resurgent Russia threatening all sorts of parts of Europe, and we will then have to pay to send British troops to help defend Ukraine.”
Mr Johnson said Mr Trump had “lots of different voices in his ears” over Ukraine.
“There’s a front of the Republican Party, quite a lot of them actually, who take the wrong line on Ukraine and who are, frankly, a bit entranced by Vladimir Putin and they have a kind of weird sort of fanboy thing about Putin,” he said.
“You know, taking his shirt off. And it’s creepy, it’s bonkers, it’s wrong. He’s listening to some of those people … he’s hearing all that.
“On the other hand, this is the same Trump who made a huge difference to the fortunes of Ukraine when he authorised the supply of the Javelin shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons.
“If Trump hadn’t done that, then the battle for Kyiv might have been very, very different.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is said to have included two proposals specifically aimed at Mr Trump in his victory plan.
American troops stationed in Europe could be replaced with Ukrainian forces after the war.
And Ukraine’s critical resources could be shared with Western partners, according to people close to the plan.
Ukrainian industries dependent on Chinese technology and materials, such as telecoms, according to the person involved, could switch to US suppliers and attract more Western investment.
Removing Beijing’s influence would be a huge positive for Mr Trump.
Kyiv and its allies fear the US could halt military support for Ukraine after the Republican takes office in January, said the officials.
Ukraine and its allies are worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin, buoyed by Moscow’s advantage on the battlefield, could press a hard bargain and prompt the US to accept a peace settlement that ends the war on terms favourable to Moscow.
“The first who blinks loses this game,” said a person involved in forming Ukraine’s pitch to Trump. “Putin believes he is on a good track right now and can get all that he wants.”
President Zelensky has said his military’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is now holding down 50,000 Russian troops.
In his daily address to the nation, Mr Zelensky said the operation was reducing Moscow’s ability to attack inside Ukraine itself. The president has long cited this as the goal of the offensive, despite scepticism from some Western allies.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a US non-profit, Russia had 11,000 troops in Kursk when Ukraine began its shock incursion in early August.
However, a report in The New York Times, external suggests Moscow has achieved its troop build-up in Kursk without any need to pull its soldiers out of Ukraine.
