Boris Johnson has accused the German government of having wanted Ukraine to lose its war against Russia “quickly” for the sake of limiting damage to the European economy.
At the beginning of the conflict, it was Germany’s view that it would be better for Ukraine to quickly collapse after being invaded by Russia, ending the war and minimising the economic impact on the rest of Europe from having a war fought on its doorstep, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has alleged. The German government in return has outright accused Johnson of having a tenuous grasp of the truth.
The former Tory party leader made the claim in an interview with United States broadcaster CNN, during which he also threw the UK’s French allies under the bus for their supposed misreading of escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the lead-up to the conflict.
According to the CNN report, Johnson described himself and his government as having a very different view on the conflict in Ukraine compared with its European colleagues, with the former PM arguing that Germany even wished to see the Ukrainians lose the conflict quickly to spare the European economy the impact of a protracted war.
“I’ll tell you a terrible thing,” he began. “The German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster, then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly, and for Ukraine to fold.”
Johnson explained that authorities in the leftist coalition government desired this outcome for what he described as “all sorts of sound economic reasons”, possibly in reference to the fact that Germany up until that point had been extremely reliant on Russian gas exports to keep the lights on.
The Tory party grandee, who was the UK Prime Minister when the Ukraine War began, also took the opportunity to throw long-time rival Emmanual Macron under the bus, saying that the French government were willfully ignorant of the Russian threat up until the country invaded Ukraine.
“Be in no doubt that the French were in denial right up until the last moment,” Johnson claimed.
While Boris Johnson went on to praise the EU and its member states overall for their response to the Ukraine War, the accusation that Germany wished Ukraine would quickly lose the conflict has not exactly endeared the country’s officials.
According to a report by Die Welt, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit has denied the accusations his country was hoping for a swift defeat of Ukraine, accusing Johnson of not having his facts straight.
“Johnson always had his own relationship to the truth, it’s no different here,” the government spokesman reportedly said.
However, Johnson’s accusations do appear to gel with accusations made by former U.S. President Donald Trump that Germany’s reliance on Russian energy would jeopardise the security of Europe.
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” Trump remarked back in 2018. “[T]hey will be getting 60-70 per cent of their energy and a new pipeline… I think it’s not [appropriate] and it’s a very bad thing for NATO.” Top German political leaders once laughed — literally — in the face of the President for pointing out their massive dependence on belligerent neighbour Russia would end badly.
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