UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats of a possible nuclear strike over Ukraine, calling it “sabre-rattling”.
He made the comment in an excerpt of an interview scheduled to be broadcast on LBC Radio’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast programme on Friday.
“It’s very, very important that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be sidetracked by this kind of sabre-rattling, because fundamentally, what Putin is trying to do is to reframe this [as] ‘it’s about Russia versus Nato’. It’s about, you know, a stand-off of that kind,” Mr Johnson says.
“It’s not. It’s about his attack on an entirely innocent country, with conventional weapons, with artillery, bombardments with planes, shells and so on and it’s about the Ukrainians’ right to protect themselves.
“That is what this is about and what we had, at Nato, was yet again, the alliance being tested, being asked, being interrogated. Are we resolved? Are we determined? Will we give the Ukrainians the means to protect themselves?
“And the answer was absolutely yes and, if anything, the strength of the unity is greater than it was before.”
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Ukrainian servicemen in a shelter at the frontline near Kharkiv. AP -
A Ukrainian and his puppy in the Donetsk region. AP -
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, third left, is shown apartment buildings damaged by Russian shelling during his visit to Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after blasts in Belgorod, Russia. Reuters -
A woman lays flowers during a demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. EPA -
A woman injured when her house was damaged by the Russian shelling sits in the yard of her house, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. AP -
Local residents stand next to a damaged residential building in the town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometres south-west of Odesa, Ukraine. AP -
Viktor Shevchenko stands in a crater to show its depth after a Russian shelling in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv. AP -
An image taken from a video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office purports to show the moment a missile struck the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. AP -
People watch as smoke rises after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall, in Kremenchuk. AP -
Firefighters clean the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk. EPA -
A woman cries after the body of her husband, who was killed in the yard of an apartment building during shelling, was loaded into an ambulance in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Firefighters and rescue workers at the destroyed Amstor shopping mall. EPA -
Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
A couple wounded by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
People wait to receive humanitarian aid in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian attack in Borodyanka, Ukraine. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen take a bus to their positions near Severodonetsk, in Luhansk area. EPA -
A Ukrainian service member and a dog in the industrial area of the city of Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A couple sits in front of a residential building that was damaged during a Russian attack, in Borodyanka. EPA -
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Borodyanka. EPA -
A Ukrainian armed forces tank in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
Ukrainian service members walk past a damaged car in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A giant Ukrainian flag is held up during the benefit concert 'Embrace Ukraine' on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. The free event will raise money for victims of the war in Ukraine and the purchase of mobile X-ray equipment that the country needs. EPA -
A fire from a gas processing plant continues to burn behind a field of wheat after it was hit by shelling a few days earlier in Andriivka, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters -
An onlooker takes in the damage from overnight shelling on Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College. Reuters -
A destroyed tank in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
A man decorates a toy cabin for children made from used ammunition crates in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
An internal view of the Housing and Communal College building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv. EPA
Mr Johnson’s scheduled appearance comes after an opinion piece written by the former British ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, in The Daily Telegraph in which she warns Nato that Mr Putin may “resort to nuclear weapons” over the war in Ukraine.
The prime minister described the war in Ukraine as a “wanton, illegal, unprovoked active aggression against a sovereign independent country”.
Asked whether Nato had acted as a united alliance during its Madrid summit this week, Mr Johnson said the conversations are now over “changing the dynamic” of the conflict.
Commenting further on the withdrawal of Russian forces from a strategic Black Sea island on Thursday, Mr Johnson said the pull-out from Snake Island was a “lesson”.
The Kremlin portrayed the pull-out as a “goodwill gesture” but Ukraine’s military claimed it had forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats following an artillery barrage and missile strikes.
Nato leaders on Thursday vowed to support Ukraine for as long as it takes to avoid defeat at the hands of Russia as President Joe Biden declared the US would send more military aid to Kyiv, including a “new advanced air defence system”.
Mr Biden said another $800 million in defence assistance for Ukraine would be announced in the next few days.
The UK will also ship another $1.2 billion in weapons to Ukraine, comprising 5,000 shoulder-fired missiles and other weaponry.
