Boris Johnson has urged European leaders to hand $247 billion of frozen Russian central bank assets to Ukraine – but says he fears they “lack the courage” to do so, in an interview with The Spectator.
The former British prime minister also warned that Trump is at risk of “morally polluting” himself if he caves to Putin’s demands in peace negotiations and encouraged his negotiating team to stop the “nauseating deals” they are discussing about joint business ventures.
“I think Europe is at a very difficult point because Europe has got to do the reparations alone,” Johnson said. “And I’m worried that they lack the courage. They must do it. I think that’s the only way to get the Americans to take Europe seriously.”
European leaders are meeting at a summit on Thursday in Brussels to discuss how the assets held in Belgium could be used to help Ukraine, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. The assets in question have been frozen since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. The EU is proposing to effectively borrow against the assets to provide Ukraine with an initial $105 billion loan. The plan has stalled amid concerns about legal precedent and the long-term implications of seizing sovereign reserves.
Johnson argues that Europe’s present predicament is a result of choices made well before Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s borders in 2022. In his account, European reluctance to confront Moscow earlier created the conditions for the war.
“This whole disaster could have been avoided if Europe had had an ounce of courage and foresight,” he lamented. “But they didn’t. Because the French and the Germans were determined to keep their special relationships with Moscow, and the Germans in particular to keep the gas flowing,”
As the White House presses Kyiv to show flexibility in negotiations with Moscow, Johnson thinks that Washington risks repeating the same mistake. “I think we must disillusion the Americans. They must understand that they are making a terrible mistake, terrible, terrible mistake. Number one, they’re polluting themselves morally by doing something that no American government has done since the Second World War, which is to give official diplomatic recognition to territory that’s been stolen by force. That’s an abomination from which I think the administration will not recover. The second thing is that it won’t work. And that having made this appalling concession of principle, they will find that Putin just pockets it and continues because he’s fundamentally not interested”.
Johnson praises Trump’s instinct to seek an end to the fighting. “I think President Trump is right to want to make peace. He has done a lot. And he’s achieved a great deal. I think he’s done things that the Democrats never did. But he needs to put more pressure on Putin. Trump was right to freeze the conflict on the contact line now. The Americans have got to stop trying to do these nauseating deals about assets to be divided between Russia and America. They’ve got to stop offering recognition. They’ve got to stop putting the pressure on the weak side, on the victim. And they’ve got to start putting the pressure on the aggressor.”
At the heart of the talks lies the unresolved question of security guarantees and Ukraine’s future military capacity. European leaders have floated various schemes to backstop any end to the war. Johnson remains unconvinced that Europe alone can credibly deter Russia. “It’s very unlikely,” he said of European-only guarantees. “They need the United States.”
Johnson also rejected claims that the war could have been avoided if Ukraine had agreed early on to stay out of NATO, responding to remarks made by Amanda Sloat, a former senior Biden administration official, during a call with Russian pranksters. Sloat, who oversaw Europe at the National Security Council, suggested that Ukrainian neutrality on NATO could have “prevented the destruction and the loss of life.”
“That’s complete rubbish,” Johnson said. “And the Ukrainians were making it very clear that they were not going to join NATO anytime soon. I was in virtually every significant NATO meeting from 2016 to the outbreak of the second Putin attack in February 2022. I can tell you the issue of Ukrainian membership was simply not on NATO’s agenda. It was always understood by everybody, including the Ukrainians, that it was not a realistic proposal in the sense that it would have been vetoed by several countries, not least the United States.”
Allowing Moscow to decide that question, Johnson says, would have placed not only Ukraine but much of the region under Russia’s control, encouraging future aggression. “And if you say, OK, the decision is for Moscow, which is effectively what was being said, then you’re saying, OK, Ukraine is now part of the Russian sphere of influence. It’s over.”
Johnson himself remains a central figure in an alternative version of events, one promoted by Russian officials, in which he is cast as the man who derailed peace talks in spring 2022. In that account, his visit to Kyiv in April is portrayed as the moment President Volodymyr Zelensky was urged to abandon negotiations and fight on.
Johnson dismisses the charge and the idea that any Western leader could have delivered a deal in spring 2022. “The situation was really strategically exactly the same as it is now. Any attempt by Ukraine to do a deal would have been temporary and would have resulted in a third attack.”
His message to Zelensky was simple. “I said to him, look, I think what you’re doing is incredible, and we are lost in admiration for the heroism of Ukrainian armed forces. I’m just here to tell you that as long as you want to fight on and as long as you need help and support, we will give it to you.”
