Boris Johnson: “Putin made a catastrophic mistake and the only option he has is to crush the Ukrainians”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson considered Friday a “realistic possibility” that the Ukrainian war will last until the end of 2023 and announced that he is considering sending tanks to Poland to help Kiev, where the British embassy will reopen “next week.”

“It's a realistic possibility, yes, of course, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has a huge army (...) he made a catastrophic mistake and the only option he has now is to keep trying (...) to crush the Ukrainians,” he answered during a press conference in India to a question about it date mentioned by Western sources.

Within the framework of military aid to the Ukrainian authorities, the United Kingdom is “studying the possibility of sending tanks to Poland” to replace the Soviet-designed T72s that the country could supply to Ukraine, since its military already knows how to handle them.

On the other hand, his country is already training Ukrainian military personnel in the use of modern armored vehicles that London will supply to Ukraine, Johnson announced on Thursday.

During a visit to Kiev on 9 April, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Johnson pledged to provide Ukraine with 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems as part of a British military aid package that also includes more than 10,000 anti-tank missiles.

The British Prime Minister also announced this Friday from New Delhi that “we will reopen our embassy in the Ukrainian capital very soon, next week”.

In February, shortly before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the British Foreign Ministry announced the “temporary” transfer of its embassy from Kiev to Lviv, in western Ukraine.

The French embassy in Ukraine, which had also moved to that city in March, returned to Kiev in mid-April. Italy has done the same and Spain has announced the upcoming return of its diplomatic legation to the Ukrainian capital.

(With information from AFP)

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