'Ukraine can win war with Russia,' says Boris Johnson

UK prime minister also said in BBC interview that he doesn't believe Vladimir Putin wants peace

Ukrainian soldiers patrol the road near Kharkiv, Ukraine, as the Russian invasion continues. EPA

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight programme on Thursday night, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he believes Ukraine can win against Russia.

“I think Ukraine can certainly win. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, I think that the situation for the Ukrainians is grim, miserable,” he said.

“I don’t think that we’ve seen anything like it for 80 years in Europe and what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is doing is unconscionable.

“But there’s a sense in which Putin has already failed or lost because I think that he had literally no idea that the Ukrainians were going to mount the resistance that they are and he totally misunderstood what Ukraine is.

“And far from extinguishing Ukraine as a nation, he is solidifying it.”

In the interview with Nicholas Watt, Mr Johnson went on to say that he is “not optimistic that Vladimir Putin really wants” peace.

The prime minister was asked how seriously he is taking the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

He said that while it was “entirely the sensible thing to do”, he added: “If this thing could be solved, it would be fantastic. I’ve got to tell you I’m not optimistic Vladimir Putin really wants that.

“I think he’s decided to double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine in the way that he has always tried to do and I think that’s a tragic mistake. But that’s what he seems to be doing at the moment.

“Therefore, we need to do more as the West, intensifying the sanctions, sending more missiles as we announced today, 6,000 more missiles, toughening up our sanctions, doing more to stop leakage of Russian gold. All the ways in which we can tighten the screw on him.”

Mr Johnson has said that, even if Nato does not grant Ukraine full membership, allies would provide the country with so much support that Russia would not consider invading again.

“Over time, you can imagine that even if you can’t have an Article 5 guarantee for Ukraine — I mean, full membership of Nato, inside the thermonuclear umbrella, as it were — you can imagine that western sympathisers of Ukraine will provide so much by way of equipment, training, intelligence as to create a kind of deterrence for Ukraine by denial — deterrence by denial of Russian possibility to invade again,” the prime minister said.

“What I’m talking about is so fortifying, so strengthening, the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine as to make it in future indigestible to the Russian invaders.”

World and US-led military alliance leaders gather at Nato headquarters in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine. Reuters

Smoke rises near a seaport in Berdyansk, Ukraine, whose navy reported it had sunk the Russian ship ‘Orsk’ in the Sea of Asov. AP Photo

Refugees with children wait for a transport after fleeing the war from neighbouring Ukraine at a railway station in Przemysl, Poland. AP Photo

A girl sleeps as refugees from Ukraine wait at the railway station in Przemysl, Poland. More than half of Ukraine's children have already been displaced, Unicef said. AFP

A school destroyed in a Russian bomb in Kharkiv. AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from the capital Kyiv. AP

Activists hold placards during a protest in solidarity with Ukraine, at Grand Central Station in New York. AFP

Ukrainian refugees take sandwiches at Krakow Airport before boarding a plane to Zurich, chartered by a Swiss millionaire. AFP

A man collects clothes from a damaged house in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP

A customer checks his rifle in a gun shop in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP

A mother tends to her newborn baby in the shelter of a maternity ward in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP

A serviceman carries the photo of Captain Andrei Paliy, a deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, during a farewell ceremony in Sevastopol, Crimea. AP

A member of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces stands in front of a damaged house in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP

A Ukrainian serviceman guards a military check point in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP

Zinaida Bogdanova, a resident of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, reacts as she stays at a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees located in the building of a local sports school in Taganrog in the Rostov region, Russia. Reuters

Children play in front of a building damaged in fighting during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters

Graves of residents killed by shelling during the Ukraine-Russia conflict are seen in a yard, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters

A Russian army soldier stands next to local residents who queue for humanitarian aid delivered during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters

A Ukrainian serviceman stands on guard as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, right, speaks alongside his brother, former heavyweight boxing world champion, Wladimir Klitschko, in the Ukrainian capital. AP

Family photos lie amid the rubble of the home of former teacher Natalia. The house, in Kyiv, was hit in a military strike. Reuters

A service member of pro-Russian troops, wearing a uniform without insignia, handles a mortar round at the weapons depot near Marinka, Donetsk. Reuters

Volodymyr, 80, rests inside his apartment, which was damaged by shelling, in Kyiv. AP

This Maxar satellite image shows the remains of high-rise apartment buildings in Mariupol. AFP

A man walks through a residential district of Kyiv that was damaged by shelling. Reuters

A woman exercises near a car and apartments damaged by shelling, in Kyiv. AP

Volunteers at a beach fill sandbags to defend their city, Odesa, in southern Ukraine. AP

A firefighter takes a break from extinguishing flames inside a house in Kyiv that was damaged by shelling. AP

Rescuers conduct search operations and dismantle debris in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AFP

People queue at a pharmacy in Kharkiv. AP

City workers cover the monument to Italian poet, writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri with sandbags to protect against Russian shelling in Kyiv. AFP

Former teacher Natalia stands near the ruins of her house which was hit in a military strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Reuters

Locals clean the area at a residential district of Kyiv that was damaged by shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters