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Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Donald Trump will “be strong and decisive” in his support for Ukraine and in “defending democracy”.
The former Conservative prime minister was in Washington this week to attend the Republican National Conference in Milwaukee, where Mr Trump was named the party’s official candidate for the upcoming US presidential election.
After a photo emerged of him delivering a speech to a nearly empty hall at the conference on Tuesday, Mr Johnson then shared an image of himself meeting Mr Trump, just days after the former president survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“It is a pleasure to meet President Trump who is in great shape after the shameful assassination attempt against him,” the former prime minister wrote. “We discussed Ukraine and I am confident that he will be strong and determined to support that country and defend democracy.”
Mr Johnson’s government was seen in Ukraine as a staunch ally in its existential struggle against Russia after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in February 2022.
Mr Johnson was ousted by his own party five months later following a series of domestic political scandals.
But his upbeat remarks contrast sharply with concern about the potential impact of a second Trump presidency on vital military aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, which intensified Monday when he announced isolationist Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential pick.
A senior EU official said Policy On Monday, Mr Vance’s appointment was a “disaster” for Ukraine, with a former senior British defence official telling Sky News they feared a Trump-Vance White House would lead to an “immediate end to all financial and military aid to Ukraine”.
Mr. Vance, who rose to fame with his 2016 memoirHillbilly Elegyhas been one of the biggest opponents of sending more money to support Ukraine, insisting that Washington does not have the financial or industrial capacity to support kyiv in its defense against a full-scale invasion by Moscow.
And echoing Mr. Trump’s own rhetoric during his tenure in the Oval Office, Mr. Vance has worried Washington’s NATO allies by saying the United States “has provided a security blanket to Europe for far too long,” describing “the money that Europe has not spent on defense” as “an implicit tax on the American people.”
As the US Congress debated the highly contested Ukraine aid bill, passed in April and opposed by many of his key supporters, Mr Trump himself repeatedly complained that Washington’s NATO allies were not giving Ukraine more money.
While Mr Trump has publicly touted the importance of Ukraine’s survival, his former security adviser Fiona Hill has claimed that as president, “he really couldn’t conceive of the idea that Ukraine was an independent state”, views that echo Mr Putin’s justification for the invasion.
The 78-year-old has repeatedly said that if re-elected he could end the fighting in Ukraine within 24 hours, raising concerns about his ability to pressure Kiev to permanently cede Crimea and Donbass to Russia.
David Cameron, then foreign secretary, warned in April against any attempt to “appease” Moscow, rejecting such a move, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the suggestion as “primitive”.
Mr Johnson has already said he would support Mr Trump’s presidential bid on condition that he backs kyiv, writing for the Daily Mail “If he does the right thing and supports Ukrainians, and I believe he will, a Trump presidency can be a great victory for the world.”
