Johnson: Time for West to double support for Ukraine, not go wobbly
If Putin is allowed to get away with his atrocities and to change the borders of Europe by force, he will do it again, elsewhere on the periphery of the former Soviet Union.
That's according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who penned an oped for the Daily Mail.
Other countries will draw the lesson that violence and aggression can pay off and that will usher in a new cycle of political and economic instability.
"That is why we must continue to back the Ukrainians – and their military success continues to be remarkable. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shown his country is fundamentally unconquerable," Johnson wrote.
"Now is the time for the West to double down our support, not to go wobbly," believes the prime minister.
The head of the British government has recalled that it was Putin's "barbaric invasion that spooked the energy markets."
It is Putin's war that is costing British consumers, doubling their energy bill. "I am afraid Putin knows it. He likes it. And he wants us to buckle," Johnson noted.
The Russian president believes that "soft" European politicians will not have the stomach for the struggle – that this coming winter "we will throw in the sponge, take off the sanctions and go begging for Russian oil and gas," wrote Johnson.
"He believes we will tire of backing Ukraine and begin discreetly to encourage the Ukrainians to do a deal, however nauseating, with the tyrant in the Kremlin," reads the oped. "That would be utter madness. In this brutal arm-wrestle, the Ukrainian people can and will win. And so will Britain."
With every month that goes by Putin's position grows weaker, Johnson concludes, adding that Putin's ability "to bully and blackmail is diminishing," while Britain's position "will grow stronger."
Johnson also wrote of the government's moves toward fully abandoning Russian energy.
