
Long-term peace in Ukraine is impossible without granting Kyiv membership in NATO. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated this in an interview with the Lithuanian publication Delfi.
According to him, before the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukraine could not realistically count on NATO membership in the near future, because "the reality was that the French were very much against it, the Germans were very much against it, not to mention the Hungarians and others."
"This was not on the international agenda. Ukraine simply could not be invited to NATO. But the paradox is that Putin's invasion, his barbaric decision to do this, has now, in my opinion, made it a moral and strategic imperative," Johnson emphasized.
At the same time, in his opinion, the current problem is that the issue of Ukraine's accession to the Alliance is not currently being actively discussed:
"I don't hear anyone saying that when this catastrophe ends, Ukraine's membership in NATO should be the solution. People stopped talking about it. And I think it's a big, big loss because the West is retreating again."
Other statements by Boris Johnson
Earlier, Boris Johnson called for the introduction of British "peacekeepers" into Ukraine. According to him, the responsibility for preserving any agreement should lie with a group of European peacekeeping forces.