Putin underestimating Ukraine — Russia will be defeated, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was a miscalculated move.

Speaking on Monday at the 16th Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe lecture in Lagos, Johnson said Putin would suffer defeat as a result of his actions.

He said the Russian president was threatened by Ukraine’s democratic growth and feared that the Kremlin would rise against him in protest.

“An indispensable freedom is the right to choose those who govern you and the right to remove them from office – it’s called democracy and it’s very precious, and it works, and it’s under attack the whole time,” Johnson said.

“Why did Vladimir Putin decide to launch his evil and criminal onslaught on Ukraine, triggering the worst war in Europe for 80 years? Because he could see that the Ukrainians were choosing a different path. They were growing towards an open liberal democratic system, a different system from the one he was permitting to the Russian people and you can see that there was a risk in this for him.

“And as Ukraine succeeded and aligned ever more closely with Western democracy, the Russian people would themselves demand change and that Putin’s own position would be under threat. He miscalculated so badly and failed to see the heroic resistance of the Ukrainians.”

The former UK prime minister added that Putin’s miscalculation was bordered on the fact that he was surrounded by people who failed to give him unbiased advice.

He said Ukraine’s victory is assured if Western allies continue to supply the embattled country with weapons.

“By the way, Ukraine is going to win, just so you know. I’m very proud of what the UK did when I was prime minister. We were the first major European country to give them serious quantities of weaponry and they helped the Ukrainian forces to kick the Russian forces out of Kyiv, out of Kharkiv, out of Kherson,” Johnson said.

“And I believe that this year, 2023, they will be able — if Ukraine’s friends continue to give them what they need — to kick Putin out of the whole country.

“But why did he get it wrong? Why did he underestimate the Ukrainians? He’s usually thought of as a brilliant chess-playing calculator. I’ll tell you why. He’s made a very terrible mistake, he’s incapacitated. He’s running seriously low on ammunition. I’ll tell you why he got it wrong – it’s precisely because he isn’t democratic. He’s surrounded by ‘yes’ men and sycophants, no backbenchers and no democratic checks and balances.”

The United States had said it would support Ukraine till it defeats Russia. Other countries including the UK have also pledged support to Ukraine.