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Boris Johnson has hit out at Donald Trump’s claims that Ukraine started the war with Russia, as the president came under fire for branding Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.
The former prime minister said the US president’s statements on Ukraine – which were the latest in a series of controversial interventions by the Trump administration – “are not intended to be historically accurate, but to shock Europeans into action”.
Mr Trump caused outrage when he wrongly claimed Kyiv started the war, as well as claiming the Ukraine president’s approval rating stands at 4 per cent and the country should hold an election.
He later doubled down on the attack, describing Mr Zelensky as a “dictator” and warned he “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Mr Trump was “right that Europe needs to pull its weight”, but defended Mr Zelensky, who she said “is a democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion”.
She said the Conservatives would always stand with Ukraine but she called on Sir Keir Starmer to do more.
She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “President Trump is right that Europe needs to pull its weight – and that includes the UK. We need to get serious. The PM (Sir Keir Starmer) will have my support to increase defence spending – there is a fully funded plan to get to 2.5 per cent sitting on his desk. That should be the bare minimum.
“Starmer should get on with it, get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership. We cannot afford to get this wrong.”
Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge pushed back against Mr Trump’s comments, telling The Independent that Vladimir Putin is “solely to blame for the invasion of Ukraine” and warning that he is “the aggressive dictator waging a war of terrifying scale, without provocation, upon a free and sovereign democratic nation”.
Their condemnation will pile pressure on Sir Keir to speak out about Mr Trump’s remarks, after so far having remained silent since the latest outpouring began on Tuesday evening.
It comes as European leaders are set to meet in Paris for the second time this week to thrash out a response to the US president’s stance.
Responding to Mr Trump’s comments, made on Tuesday evening, Mr Johnson said: “Of course Ukraine didn’t start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor.
“Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections. There was no general election in the UK from 1935 to 1945. “Of course Zelensky’s ratings are not 4 per cent. They are actually about the same as Trump’s.”
The former PM later added: “The US believes Belgium, France and other countries are blocking. It’s absurd. We need to get serious and fast.”
He also asked when Europeans are going to “stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war?”
The intervention of the former prime minister, who was once a vocal supporter of Kyiv, comes after months of mysterious silence on the issue – in an apparent move to appease the president since he reentered the White House.
In response, Mr Zelensky, who said Mr Trump is living in a “disinformation space”, warned that he would not sell his nation after Russia and the US started talks to broker a peace deal without Ukraine.
Washington and Moscow started talks earlier this week, led by US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Ukraine was not invited to the negotiations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which concluded with ground rules for further diplomacy, and European countries were also locked out of the talks.
Sir Ben Wallace – who was defence secretary under Mr Johnson – accused the Trump administration of sharing “genuine fake news” about the war, as well as suggesting the peace talks were a waste of time.
He posted on X: “I think what President Trump is learning is that if you have no skin in the game you don’t get to decide the fate of Ukraine. I am sure they all enjoyed their 4 hour talks today but they probably shouldn’t have wasted their time.”
London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan also took aim at the US president, saying that it “beggars belief” that Mr Trump is “rewarding the aggressor” and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion.
He told LBC radio: “We have tens of thousands of Ukrainians who are refugees in our city because of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
“And what beggars belief is for the president of the USA apparently rewarding the aggressor, not just in terms of giving him the 20 per cent of Ukraine that they currently occupy, but also somehow blaming President Zelensky for what’s happened over the last two years.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats said it is “nonsense to suggest that Ukraine started this conflict”.
“Trump’s effort to rewrite the history books is Orwellian – a move designed to please his friend Putin.
“These distorted claims are also a threat to the UK as they undermine the rule of law and undercut European security. They prove more than ever why we need a stronger bond with our European partners: so we can challenge Trump’s damaging world view from a position of strength”, Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army colonel, urged European allies to “step up support” for Ukraine, telling The Independent that Mr Trump is “being hoodwinked by Putin”.
“I agree with Boris – Trump is talking b****** and being hoodwinked by Putin – he said he’d end the war in 24 hours. He’s living in some sort of fantasy land and doesn’t seem to realise people are dying out there as he ‘show boats’ – we with Europe need to step up our support to Ukraine”.
Sir Keir, who will visit Washington next week, has urged America to provide a “backstop” to any settlement brokered between Kyiv and Moscow.
He suggested this backstop would be necessary in order for the UK to put in place its proposal to put peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine.
While Mr Trump said he is “all for” the promise to put British troops in Ukraine, he said the US does not need to deploy peacekeeping troops as “we’re very far away”.
Source: independent.co.uk
