Prime Minister eyes plan to visit Kyiv to show support to Ukraine

Could Boris Johnson be the next leader to head for Kyiv? Prime Minister eyes plan to visit Ukraine capital to show support in country’s war with Russia… but security chiefs are ‘having kittens’ over the idea

  • Boris Johnson is considering a lightning trip to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine
  • Security officials said to be ‘having kittens’ at the prospect of the PM going there
  • But a Whitehall source said Mr Johnson ‘wants to go’ if it can be made to work 
  • The PM was in a row after appearing to link Ukraine’s struggle with Brexit  

Boris Johnson is considering a lightning trip to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine’s battle against Vladimir Putin.

The Prime Minister has asked officials to examine the practicality and value of the trip to the Ukrainian capital for talks with president Volodymyr Zelensky. Security officials are said to be ‘having kittens’ at the prospect of the PM travelling to a war zone.

But a Whitehall source said Mr Johnson ‘wants to go’ if it can be made to work.

The source added: ‘If you set aside the security concerns, which are considerable, the question is whether there is anything additional you could achieve by visiting in person, or whether it would just be a show of solidarity, and whether that is a sufficient goal in itself.’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked officials to examine the practicality and value of a trip to Kyiv

Ukrainian firefighters and security teams at the scene of a building hit by Russian missiles in Kyiv

The prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic made a trip to Kyiv last week. 

‘I have a very, very strong desire to support him [Zelensky] in any way I can. Whether that would be a useful way of showing my support I don’t know but it is of huge strategic, political, economic, moral importance for Putin to fail and Zelensky to succeed,’ Mr Johnson told The Sunday Times.

It came as Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday moved to defuse a row caused by a Tory spring conference speech at the weekend, in which the PM appeared to link Ukraine’s battle for freedom against Putin with Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

Evacuees from the villages occupied by Russian soldiers arrive in the town of Brovary, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

He said: ‘The instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom, every time… When the British people voted for Brexit, in such large, large numbers, I don’t believe it was because they were remotely hostile to foreigners.

‘It’s because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself.’ 

But Mr Sunak said: ‘He was talking about freedom in general. Those two situations are not directly comparable and no one thinks that they are.’

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves urged the PM to apologise for the ‘crass remarks’. 

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