'Utter nonsense': Germany rejects Boris Johnson's claim they wanted Kyiv to fold to Moscow

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's claim that Berlin urged Ukraine to fold when the Russia-Ukraine war began was angrily shut down by Germany. Calling Johnson’s relationship with truth “unique”, spokesperson for the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected the claims that the ex-UK PM made in a recent CNN interview. 

During the interview, Johnson claimed that Germany wanted the war to end quickly urging Ukraine to fold. Talking about Germany's take on the Russia-Ukraine war, he said, “The German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster, then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly and for Ukraine to fold." He added that Germany had all sorts of “economic reasons for that approach”. Johnson talked about how some of the European states were hesitant to help Ukraine but made it clear that the EU nations later “rallied behind Ukraine”. 

The spokesperson to the German Chancellor called Borris' claim “utter nonsense”. Calling him “very entertaining”, the German spokesperson said, “We know that the very entertaining former British Prime minister always has his own relationship with the truth.” Addressing the media on Wednesday, the spokesperson talked about how Germany’s support to Ukraine was “initiated after the speech of February 27” and asserted that the support has been “unprecedented both in terms of quality and quantity" since then. He added, “I would think that these very facts contradict these allegations.” 

Johnson claims stance of European nations in war 'disastrous'

In the CNN interview, Johnson claimed that French President Emmanuel Macron was in "denial" about the threat of invasion, and Italy under the Mario Draghi administration made it clear that it "could not help". Commenting on the French stance, Johnson said, “Be in no doubt that the French were in denial right up until the last moment.” He further claimed that this stance by the European countries was “disastrous". “I couldn’t support that, I thought that was a disastrous way of looking at it. But I can understand why they thought and felt as they did.”

Johnson's assertions were similar to the one made by Andriy Melnyk, the former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany. In March Melnyk put out a tweet, in which he wrote, “On 14 February we were warning German politicians: ‘Kyiv may be bombed in the coming days! We urgently need 12 thousand anti-tank rockets from Germany.’ In response: just mockery. So sad. So furious.”. While summing up the conversation, Johnson applauded the EU for rallying behind Ukraine. He said, “After all my anxieties … I pay tribute to the way the EU."