Boris Johnson has said the UK and its allies lack “the will and the leadership and the sense of urgency” to do more to help Ukraine.
Speaking at the opening of an exhibition called Indomitable Ukraine on Tuesday evening, the former prime minister said the UK is “still apprehensive about the consequences” of stepping up support.
He asked why frozen Russian assets are still not being used to fund the war effort, why the UK is still buying uranium from Russia, why it has not sanctioned Russian energy company Rosneft and why it has not imposed secondary sanctions on those still buying hydrocarbons from Russia.
Mr Johnson said: “I’ll tell you why. It’s because we’re still apprehensive about the consequences, and because we still fundamentally lack the will and the leadership and the sense of urgency to get this done.
“When you consider the immensity of their (Ukrainians’) sacrifice, there is absolutely no excuse for our continuing vacillation.
“The Ukrainians, my friends, are going to win. Ukraine will win. This is a war for independence. They are fighting for their land, they are fighting for their statehood.
“It’s a war of independence, and in the end, wars of independence only end one way, but it will end all the faster if we finally discover the collective will and courage that we need to give the Ukrainians what they need.”
Mr Johnson called for frozen Russian assets to be “unlocked” to help Ukraine fight off Vladimir Putin’s forces.
He said: “Why is it still the case that the 300 billion dollars (£221 billion) of Putin’s frozen assets in a bank account in Brussels, and none of the diplomats in the world, none of the foreign ministers in the world, seem able to unlock this, get this done?”
A heckler in the crowd shouted: “Why didn’t you do it?”, to which Mr Johnson replied: “Unfortunately, as I think some of you may know, I was removed from office before I could get it done, tragically.”
The former prime minister also appeared to suggest that British soldiers should be sent to “safe areas” of Ukraine.
He said: “We talk about the coalition of the willing. Well, if they’re really willing, I can tell you, I’ve just been to Ukraine, like many of you – why don’t we send them there now to the many safe parts of Ukraine to make the point that it is Ukrainians who decide which foreign troops come on to their soil?
“They should be there symbolically to make the point that it is Ukrainians who decide which foreign troops come to their soil and not Vladimir Putin.”
The coalition of the willing is an international effort to support Ukraine towards a lasting peace, comprising 31 countries and led by the UK, France and Ukraine.
According to a leak in Russian media last year of a top-secret call involving German air force officers, there may already be British soldiers on the ground in Ukraine helping Kyiv’s forces fire long-range Storm Shadow missiles.
Earlier in the evening, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, thanked British people who have died fighting for Ukraine.
He said: “Among those who choose the side of life, British citizens who gave their lives for Ukraine.”
Addressing their families, many of whom were in the room, he said: “I want to say your sacrifice is not in vain. It has become the smiles of our children who are living. Thank you very much.”
The mother of a young man who went to Ukraine to fight told the PA news agency that her son “had his heart set on stopping this injustice”.
Michaela Tarmey, whose son Marlyn Christopher Tarmey died in Ukraine in June aged 20, said: “He was always like, ‘I’m gonna go. I’m gonna go’.
“Obviously, I didn’t (him) want to, but I supported him, because if you don’t support them, they stop contact.”
She said her ex-husband called her three months after their son went to Ukraine to tell her that police had been to his house and told him Marlyn was missing in action.
