Politics
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Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato ‘now’, Boris Johnson has urged.
The former prime minister has said the move would be the ‘single biggest step’ the West could take to end Russia‘s war.
He admitted the United States and its allies would be alarmed about Ukraine joining the military alliance while fighting was ongoing.
It would mean all 32 Nato member states would have to commit to Ukraine’s defence.
But writing in today’s Spectator, he argues: ‘The risk is that we continue with the ambiguity and indecision over the future of Ukraine that has led to the worst war in Europe in my lifetime.
Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato ‘now’, Boris Johnson (left) has urged. Mr Johnson is pictured shaking hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right) in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, September 13, 2024
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) said after a summit in Washington in July that Nato had ‘confirmed Ukraine’s irreversible path to full membership’. Yet earlier this year, US President Joe Biden (left) said he was ‘not prepared to support the Nato-isation of Ukraine’. Sir Keir and President Biden are pictured together at the summit in DC on July 10, 2024
‘If we want peace, then we must put the Ukrainians in the strongest possible position, and this is how to do it.’
Ukraine has long sought membership of Nato and gained ‘aspiring member’ status in 2018, four years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but not all western leaders have been enthusiastic.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stepped up the demand in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in early 2022. However, at a summit last year Nato leaders said Ukraine could join only once it had completed ‘democratic and security sector reforms‘.
At the time, Mr Johnson said there should have been a timetable for membership ‘as soon as victory is won’. Now the former foreign secretary goes further, arguing: ‘We could invite Ukraine to join before the war is even over.’
‘We need to get Ukraine into Nato now, and I mean now,’ he writes. He suggests the critical Article 5 security guarantee – which means an attack on one Nato member is seen as an attack on all – could be extended to cover territory currently controlled by Kyiv, while allies should also reaffirm the country’s right to its borders.
‘We could protect most of Ukraine, while simultaneously supporting the Ukrainian right to recapture the rest,’ Mr Johnson writes, adding: ‘This is the single biggest step we can take to bring this hideous war to an end.
‘We would send the crucial message to the Kremlin, the one Russians really need to hear. The message is: that’s it. It’s over. You don’t have an empire any more.’
A Ukrainian tank of the 110th brigade moves through a field as it returns from a position at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine on Wednesday, September 18, 2024
A heavily damaged and partially destroyed house following a Russian attack on the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region on September 17, 2024
He admits the decision depends above all on the US. Sir Keir Starmer said after a summit in Washington in July that Nato had ‘confirmed Ukraine’s irreversible path to full membership’.
Yet earlier this year, US President Joe Biden said he was ‘not prepared to support the Nato-isation of Ukraine’.
Mr Johnson adds: ‘We would all have to commit to the defence of that Ukrainian territory. And of course that will mean anxiety and resistance.’
He also renewed his call for Mr Biden and the Prime Minister to allow Ukraine to fire western Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory, after talks last week between the pair failed to lead to a breakthrough.
Russia’s ambassador to the UK was hauled into the Foreign Office today over ‘malicious and completely baseless’ claims against British diplomats in Moscow.
The Kremlin last week announced the expulsion of six Foreign Office staff from Russia and claimed to have evidence they were engaged in spying and sabotage.
The move ratcheted up tensions between Londonand Moscow as Sir Keir Starmer prepared to meet Joe Biden in Washington DC.
The PM and US President held talks on giving the go-ahead for Ukraine to use long-range missiles, including Britain’s Storm Shadow weapons, against targets in Russia.
The Foreign Office immediately rejected the claims by Russia’s FSB security agency against its staff in Moscow and today announced the summoning of Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin.
It said the action was taken in response to Moscow’s ‘malicious and deliberate public campaign of aggression against the UK’.
Andrey Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, was hauled into the Foreign Office today over ‘malicious and completely baseless’ claims against British diplomats in Moscow
The Foreign Office said the action was taken in response to Moscow’s ‘malicious and deliberate public campaign of aggression against the UK’
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: ‘The UK condemns in the strongest terms Russia’s unprecedented and unfounded public campaign of aggression against the UK, including the malicious and completely baseless accusations made against Foreign Office staff last week.
‘This behaviour is in direct contravention to Russia’s obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
‘This pattern of behaviour is completely unacceptable, deeply unprofessional, and beneath the standards of conduct between states.
‘This is the latest development in a deliberate campaign by Russia to undermine and threaten UK security and democracy and deter our support for Ukraine, through disinformation, acts of sabotage in Europe and direct harassment and restrictions against our diplomatic missions in Russia.
‘This campaign will not succeed. Russia must stop this activity immediately.’
The expulsion of six UK diplomats from Moscow is the latest in a series of diplomatic rows between Britain and Russia over the past year.
In May, the UK expelled Russia’s defence attache in London, Colonel Maxim Elovik, claiming he was an ‘undeclared military intelligence officer’, removed diplomatic status from several Russian-owned premises, and placed restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas.
In response, Russia expelled Britain’s defence attache in Moscow, Captain Adrian Coghill.
Despite Sir Keir and Mr Biden’s talks last week, no decision has yet been reached on giving Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to target Russian airfields and military bases.
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