Boris Johnson asserts 'will step down' if UK govt withdraws support for Ukraine

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday made wide-ranging claims that he would “step down” from his premiership should any cabinet decide to “abandon” Ukraine. In a sit-down with BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, Johnson declared that if it were put to him that Britain would have to abandon the Ukrainian cause because it was “simply getting too difficult”, he would rather leave the designation of Prime Minister. 

UK Prime Minister speculated, that the loss of abandoning Kyiv and letting Russia win the brutal war would be “too much to bear.”  “I would accept that I have lost a very important argument and I would go,” Johnson, who has been a staunch ally to Ukraine throughout the Russian aggression, told his interviewer.

The British Prime minister, although, remained defiant about changing the standards of his governance, just having survived a no-confidence motion, stressing that he would simply not undergo any ‘psychological transformation’ in his character. UK premier affirmatively said it's “not going to happen”.

Johnson said that he is apparently "fed up with hearing conversation" about himself and is more keen on “standing up to violence and aggression” in Ukraine.

Speaking from Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kigali in Rwanda, Johnson emphasised that he well understood how to distinguish between what he described as ‘criticism that matters” and “what doesn’t”.

But that the only example of a matter of principle over which he will consider resigning is when or if he were “asked to give up supporting Ukraine”. Just a week ago, British Prime Minister Johnson had pulled out of a conference in Doncaster, angering dozens of Tory MPs to make a surprise visit to Kyiv.

Number 10 Downing Street had told the organisers to expect the Prime Minister to address activists, but instead UK’s leader travelled via Ukraine Railways from Poland and was seen meeting and pledging support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “It’s not an excuse – he could have gone there any time,” one MP maintained, questioning Johnson’s conduct, adding that British Prime Minister needed to “respect the people who hold his future in their hands”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson walk during their meeting in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit: Associated Press

Johnson keen on 'expelling' Russian forces in Ukraine 

At a conference in Kyiv, Johnson declared that UK’s military assistance to Ukraine and its continued support is aimed at expelling invading Russian troops. He also told his counterpart Zelenskyy that UK will train 120,000 troops every 120 days to counter the Russian aggression on Kyiv’s soil.

The UK PM affirmed that he has pledged “£1.5bn at a donor conference from friends, partners around the world, dozens and dozens of countries that now want to support Ukraine”. He further revealed that he made a phone call to US president Joe Biden, and the two leaders agreed that "Putin would never be able to hold down the spirit of the Ukrainian people".