KYIV — Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is blunt. Europe, he says, is not doing enough to help Ukraine win.
In a wide-ranging interview with Independence Avenue Media on the anniversary of the invasion, an exasperated Johnson argues that Europe lacks urgency. He says the war will not end without dramatically increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also defends his proposal to reopen Lviv’s airport as a symbol of resilience, calls for the use of frozen Russian assets, and insists that Ukrainian victory — not mere survival — must once again become the goal of Western policy.
Johnson also credits the Trump administration for taking “decisive” action to pressure Russia, while insisting that Kyiv has compromised enough.
The following interview, recorded on Feb. 24, 2026, has been edited for length and clarity.
Ia Meurmishvili, IAM editor in chief: Let’s start from some of the points that you made earlier at the presentation here today. The coalition of the willing — you famously call it the coalition of the “waiting.” Why do you do that?
Boris Johnson, former UK prime minister: Well, because at the moment the whole operation rests on the consent of Vladimir Putin. Nothing can happen until Putin agrees. [But] Ukraine is a free country. That’s the premise on which this war is being fought by the Ukrainians, to have their own freedom. It should not be for Vladimir Putin to decide which troops, other than his own, are allowed to come onto Ukrainian soil. It’s for the Ukrainians to decide.
IAM: You’re also proposing something that’s unthinkable at this point — opening the airport in Lviv.
Johnson: Why is that so difficult? I don’t believe that would be difficult. I think you could put enough protection around it. I think it would be a major symbol of the economy getting back to a peacetime footing. Why not do something? We can’t keep just going on with this war as it is. This is now the fourth anniversary. It is appalling. We’re entering the fifth year of this conflict. It’s horrendous.
And you can see it when you listen to the generals, like we had this morning at the [Yalta European Strategy (YES)] conference. You had that brave, brave soldier — a distinguished man — from the front line, saying the reality. Russia is losing a lot of people, but it’s not losing people fast enough. They still are in the overwhelming majority. The ratio [of soldiers] favors Russia. It’s very hard for Ukraine. I think there is just a terrible complacency in Europe about this thing. People don’t understand how urgent it is to get this war over. They think, the Ukrainians are heroes, it’ll grind on, we’ll buy lots of gas from America. It’s absolutely terrible. Get it over.
IAM: So, you don’t think the Europeans are taking this as an urgent matter?
Johnson: I don’t think that there’s anything like the urgency that we need. I think that Europeans won’t really take it seriously until they realize that Putin really is going to be aggressive towards one of their own countries. And that’s a tragedy because I think that if he wins in Ukraine or if he keeps going, he is a threat to the Baltics, he’s a threat all over the place. But it’s about Ukraine. We’ve told the Ukrainians, you’re heroes, fight on. We give enough to help them survive. We don’t give enough to help them win.
IAM: That was a policy, not to mention the word win, by the West for a long time, remember?
Johnson: Well, not under me, it wasn’t. No, my policy was that Putin must fail and Ukraine must be free. And we need to get back to that. What’s embarrassing about Ukraine winning? Why is that unthinkable? It’s ridiculous.
IAM: It takes more effort.
Johnson: We’re not going to get Putin to compromise unless he thinks that we’re willing to do far, far more.
IAM: Let’s talk about Putin and the peace talks.
Johnson: What peace talks? It’s ridiculous.
IAM: Well, peace talks are going on. Ukrainians are a part of it. They are happy to participate …
Johnson: The Ukrainians talking to America, America talking to Europe, Europe talking to Ukraine — it’s just rubbish. Everybody can see a kind of deal that they might be able to do. But where’s Russia? Where’s the evidence that Russia wants to agree to anything?
Even if Ukraine gets out of Donbas, is Russia really going to agree? Russia wants Ukraine to be a vassal state. There’s never going to be an agreement worthwhile unless we put more pressure on Putin.
IAM: Do you think the U.S. is willing to put that pressure on Putin?
Johnson: I think the U.S. has shown it’s willing to do things that Europeans aren’t willing to do, actually: Impound Russian flag vessels that were breaking the ban on shipments of oil, put pressure on India to stop using Russian hydrocarbons. America was the first to give lethal weaponry to Ukraine. That was Trump, in the first administration. So America’s capable of doing some pretty decisive things. But right now, there’s no leadership from Europe. We’ve had Davos and Munich and all these European leaders saying, this is the hour of Europe. To do what?
IAM: So it’s a long road between how you’re describing the Europeans and your proposal to send some European troops to Ukraine. How do you think that’s possible?
Johnson: When I was leading the UK, it was a different matter. We could lead and we could do things and other Europeans eventually followed. We were the first to give serious lethal weaponry in Europe. I think we were the first to give the tanks and so on. The UK could be doing that again. We’ve got $15 billion worth of Russian money frozen in London. If the EU won’t unfreeze the money in Brussels we could lead [on that too].
IAM: Well that’s taking four years and still counting right?
Johnson: It’s appalling. We wring our hands about the suffering of Ukrainians, but why aren’t we doing more?
IAM: Do you think there is a point where Ukrainians could get frustrated? Maybe they are already frustrated? What can happen after that? How do you see that?
Johnson: Very often they think that they have no choice but to fight on alone, and that they can’t rely on anybody. They’re actually becoming more self-reliant. They’re incredible. But I think we can help them massively.
IAM: One more question about Putin. Do you think he’s actually willing to stop this war?
Johnson: Not under current circumstances. But he might be, if we do the things I’ve described. You can’t fix this war by endlessly putting pressure on Ukraine. That’s the wrong way around. Ukrainians have done what they can. There’s no more they can give. The only way to get a deal now is radically to increase the pressure on Putin.
IAM: Including from the Europeans.
Johnson: Including from the Europeans.
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