Boris Johnson had branded Vladimir Putin a ‘f***ing idiot’ over his imperial ambitions.
Britain’s former Prime Minister told the Russian leader there will be ‘no more empire’, declaring Ukraine and other eastern European countries would never rejoin the ‘Russian imperium’.
Mr Johnson, 60, also warned the West was in ‘retreat’ and Donald Trump would not ‘do everything… to help Ukraine’ unless Nato members up their spending on defence.
Speaking to Baltic news website, Delfi, he said: ‘What Putin is doing is archaic and barbaric, and he needs to understand that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – none of these countries are part of the Russian imperium anymore. And nor is Ukraine.
‘It’s over – over, over, over. No more empire, Vladimir, you f***ing idiot. Excuse my language.’
Mr Johnson also proposed world leaders to renew their efforts to have Ukraine join Nato in order to deter a Russian invasion in the future.
He said: ‘People have stopped talking about it. And I think that’s a great, great loss, because the West is retreating again.
‘We have to be much more decisive. We will not solve the Ukraine problem without Article 5 guarantees or long-term Nato membership.’
Boris Johnson had branded Vladimir Putin a ‘f***ing idiot’ over his imperial ambitions
Britain’s former Prime Minister told the Russian leader there will be ‘no more empire’, declaring Ukraine and other eastern European countries would never rejoin the ‘Russian imperium’
Mr Johnson, 60, also warned the West was in ‘retreat’ and Donald Trump would not ‘do everything… to help Ukraine’ unless Nato members up their spending on defence (Pictured: Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensy with Boris Johnson in September 2023)
Mr Johnson reprimanded Germany and other Nato members for demanding that President elect Donald Trump send aid to Ukraine while failing to live up to their own military spending commitments.
He said: ‘Until we get serious about that, I don’t see how we can convince the Trump administration to do everything it can to help Ukraine.
‘I don’t see how Germany can just sit there and refuse to spend enough on defence, demand that Trump help Ukraine, and say they don’t want to send frozen Russian 300 billion to Ukraine. It’s absurd.’
The former Conservative leader also complained ‘stupid’ objections by officials to arming Ukraine meant that British anti-tank missiles only arrived in the country about a month before Russia’s invasion.
‘The problem was the British system itself – our officials in the Foreign Office and elsewhere who simply … made the stupidest arguments,’ he said.
‘I’m not saying they were stupid, but I think their objections were wrong.’
Mr Johnson is credited with rallying up Europe’s support for Ukraine following Putin’s invasion in February 2022.
He was the first Western leader to visit their capital city, Kyiv, following the outbreak of war and returned twice during his time in office.