Boris Johnson Says The UK Should Block A Peace Deal In Ukraine- Just As He Did In April Of 2022.

The Proxy War In Ukraine May Finally Come To An End- But It Could Have Ended In April Of 2022 Had It Not Been For Boris Johnson.

In a recent op-ed for the Daily Mail, the former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson came out against the current peace negotiations going on to end the proxy war in Ukraine and called for the continuation of the war.

Summarized by Ukrainian-Canadian professor of political science, Ivan Katchanovski, Trump’s plan calls for :

- No NATO membership
- EU membership.
– US$100 billion in frozen Russian assets go to Ukraine’s reconstruction; the United States receives 50% of the profits. – Europe contributes an additional US$100 billion.
- lifting sanctions & G8 membership for Russia
- The size of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is capped.
– Ukraine remains a non-nuclear state.
– Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk are recognised as Russian territory.
– Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are “frozen” along the current line of contact.
– From the part of Donetsk oblast currently controlled by Kyiv, Ukrainian troops are withdrawn; this territory receives international recognition as Russian and is declared a demilitarised zone under Russian control.
– Both sides undertake not to change borders by force.
– NATO does not deploy troops in Ukraine.
– NATO fighter aircraft are stationed in Poland.
– Russia legally enshrines, at the legislative level, a policy of non-aggression towards Ukraine and Europe.
– The United States and Europe launch a major investment package for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
– The remaining frozen Russian assets are directed to joint American-Russian projects.
– Long-term economic cooperation between the United States and Russia.
– “All-for-all” prisoner exchange, including the return of civilians and children.
– Restart of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant under IAEA supervision; electricity is split 50/50 between Ukraine and Russia.
– The United States assists in restoring Ukraine’s gas infrastructure.
– Elections in Ukraine are held 100 days after the agreement is signed.
– Full amnesty for all participants in the war.
– The agreement is legally binding.
– Enforcement is carried out by a “Peace Council” chaired by Donald Trump.
– In the event of violation by Russia — sanctions are re-imposed; in the event of violation by Ukraine — the United States and Europe withdraw security guarantees.
– Immediately upon signature — ceasefire and withdrawal to the agreed positions.

Axios reported that, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Thursday that he’s willing to work with the Trump administration on its new plan for peace in Ukraine”.

However, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson opposes the deal.

In the Daily Mail, he complains that, “The so-called peace plan calls for the military castration of Ukraine. It demands a Russian veto over Ukrainian membership of NATO, and Russian control over the admission of any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil,” and claims that the plan is “a complete betrayal of Ukraine”.

He then goes on to complain that the UK is not trying to stop the peace deal and an end to the war, writing:

The Ukrainians have been handed an ultimatum to begin talks on these disgraceful terms. Where are their allies? Their friends? What about the Brits, for instance, who used to be such implacable foes of Russian expansionism?

The Brits were always the ones who tried to lead Europe against Putin’s aggression. They were the ones who used to marshal support and weapons for Ukraine. So why – you wonder idly – are we not hearing from London? What’s got into the British, these days?

He concludes, “In the name of freedom, we need to file the 28-point Ukraine plan vertically”.

What Boris Johnson does not mention is that this is exactly what he did in April of 2022, when he was Prime Minister.

In April of 2022- just two months into the war, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a peaceful settlement to end the war in Istanbul, Turkey, but Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv to block the deal- on the behest of the collective West- to continue what he admits is a “proxy war” with Russia.

The story was first broken in the outlet Ukrainska Pravda, which reported that, “Following the arrival of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Kyiv, a possible meeting between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin has become less likely”.

The article reports that Johnson told Zelenskyy, “even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not,” adding that, “Johnson’s position was that the collective West … now felt that Putin was not really as powerful as they had previously imagined, and that here was a chance to ‘press him.’”

The report noted that, “three days after Johnson left for Britain, Putin went public and said talks with Ukraine ‘had turned into a dead end’”.

More details have since emerged from Ukrainian officials on how Boris Johnson blocked the peace deal.

In an interview, the lead Ukrainian negotiator at the peace talks, David Arakhamia, said, “Russia’s goal was to put pressure on us so that we would take (NATO) neutrality. This was the main thing for them: they were ready to end the war if we accepted neutrality, as Finland once did. And we will give a commitment that we will not join NATO. This is the main thing,” adding that, “Boris Johnson then came to Kyiv and said that he did not want to sign anything with the Russians and ‘let’s just fight.’”

More recently, Oleksiy Arestovych, the former adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, who was part of the negotiations at Istanbul, also confirmed this.

When asked when he started criticizing Zelensky, he said, “The fact that they did not continue negotiations in Istanbul, didn’t finish their work after Johnson arrived, this was already a crime, against Ukraine, the Ukrainian people”.

Similarly, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett- who took part in the negotiations- said that he “was under the impression that both sides very much wanted a ceasefire,” but the West, represented by Boris Johnson, “blocked it”.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was at the negotiations, also said, “Following the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, I had the impression that ... there are those within the NATO member states that want the war to continue, they want Russia to become weaker”.

Gerhard Schröder, the former German Chancellor, who was at the negotiations, confirmed that, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was unable to act independently,” adding “that ‘more powerful circles’ behind Zelenskyy obstructed the peace efforts, believing that prolonging the conflict would strategically weaken Russia.”

Even Victoria Nuland, the former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs for the Biden administration, when asked about Johnson blocking the peace agreement, said, the deal “‘fell apart’ because the US, the UK and other Western governments ‘advised’ the Zelenskyy government that it was not ‘a good deal.’”

Ukrainian ambassador Oleksandr Chalyi, who was also at the negotiations, said that “we were very close to ending our war with some peaceful settlement” adding that Russia, “tried to do everything possible to conclude [an] agreement with Ukraine” and “really wanted to reach some peaceful settlement” adding that at the Istanbul negotiations, Russia and Ukraine, “managed to find a very real compromise”.

While Johnson complains that the current deal is a “betrayal of Ukraine”, he neglects to mention that the peace deal he blocked would have been far better for Ukraine.

As Oleksiy Arestovych put it, “The Russian side still insisted on peace initiatives. And the Istanbul peace initiatives were very good, an intermediary document... Now 200-300 thousand would be alive, probably, and half of Ukraine would not be destroyed and mined... They agreed to political discussions on Crimea... We made concessions, but the amount of their concessions was greater. This will never happen again, it won’t, they will push more and more”.

After leaving office, Johnson admitted that his intention was to fight a proxy war with Russia, using Ukraine as the proxy, saying, “We’re waging a proxy war, but we’re not giving our proxies the ability to do the job. For years now, we’ve been allowing them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs, and it has been cruel”.

Similarly, today, Johnson wants to block a peace deal with the hopes of continuing this proxy war.

The Ukraine proxy war will hopefully finally come to an end, but it should not be forgotten that the war could have ended in a more favorable deal to Ukraine, and saved millions of lives had Boris Johnson and the “collective West” not blocked the deal in April of 2022.

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