{"id":780267,"date":"2026-02-21T22:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/780267\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T22:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:29:19","slug":"boris-johnson-urges-uk-and-allies-to-send-noncombat-troops-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/780267\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Johnson urges UK and allies to send noncombat troops to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the U.K. and its European allies should immediately deploy noncombat troops<\/a> to Ukraine to show Russian President Vladimir Putin that Western nations are truly committed to the nation\u2019s freedom and independence.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine<\/a>, Johnson told the BBC that the troops should be sent to peaceful regions in non-fighting roles. The comments from Johnson, who was one of Ukraine\u2019s staunchest supporters<\/a> as Britain\u2019s leader during the first months of the conflict, were contained in excerpts of an interview that will be broadcast on Sunday.<\/p>\n

If adopted, the proposal from Johnson would mark a major policy shift for the U.K. and its allies. While the \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d is working on plans<\/a> to send troops to Ukraine, such a deployment would only take place after an agreement to end the fighting and would be designed to police the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are willing to do it in the context of a ceasefire, which of course puts all the initiative, all the power, in Putin\u2019s hands, why not do it now?\u2019\u2019 Johnson said. \u201cThere is no logical reason that I can see why we shouldn\u2019t send peaceful ground forces there to show our support, our constitutional support for a free, independent Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western military planners have avoided discussing such a move publicly out of concern that Russia would see it as an escalation of the conflict.<\/p>\n

Putin in September rejected Western proposals for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, saying that any troops deployed to the country would be \u201clegitimate targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Johnson said Putin shouldn\u2019t be able to dictate terms to Ukraine and its allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about whether Ukraine is a free country or not,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s a vassal state of Russia, which is what Putin wants, then obviously it\u2019s up to Putin to decide who comes to his country. If it\u2019s not, then it\u2019s up to the Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about Johnson\u2019s comments, Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defense said the government was continuing to work with the coalition of the willing to prepare for the deployment of troops to Ukraine after a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe multinational force Ukraine under UK leadership will secure peace for the long term, with the Prime Minister being clear that we will put British troops on the ground following the end of hostilities,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the war in Ukraine was the result of the West\u2019s failure to support Ukraine after the invasion of Crimea<\/a> in 2014, as well as its inability to punish Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons<\/a> against his own people in Syria and the debacle of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Putin was emboldened by a Western failure in Syria to punish Assad for using chemical weapons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Putin was further emboldened in February 2022 by what he\u2019d seen in Afghanistan, and a sort of general sense that the West was on the back foot. He\u2019d seen those appalling pictures of Americans being forced to flee Afghanistan and the UK pulling out as well, and that really did embolden him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the U.K. and its European allies should immediately…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[25646,5109,2000,299,4179,8614,82846,285,7661,657,15,11654,333,7660,263],"class_list":["post-780267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-bashar-assad","tag-boris-johnson","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-general-news","tag-international-agreements","tag-military-occupations","tag-politics","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-kingdom-government","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116110987455525748","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}