What can Boris Johnson and Liz Truss do for Ukraine?

Liz Truss has called on Russia to abandon its “Cold War rhetoric” over Ukraine as she and Boris Johnson embark on a diplomatic blitz to ease the eastern European stand-off.

At a meeting in Moscow today, the foreign secretary told her counterpart Sergei Lavrov that he must “respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”, amid fears that Russia plans to invade after amassing 100,000 troops on the neighbouring nation’s border. 

Any incursion would be “disastrous for the Russian and Ukrainian people and for European security”, and would have “massive consequences and carry severe costs”, warned Truss, the first UK foreign secretary to visit Russia in four years. 

A defiant Lavrov shot back that “ultimatums and threats” were a “dead end” that would “yield nothing”, adding that relations between London and Moscow had reached their “lowest point in years”. 

‘Most dangerous moment’

Johnson hoped for a better outcome as he travelled to Brussels and Warsaw for further talks. Ahead of the visits, the prime minister said that Nato must “draw lines in the snow and be clear there are principles upon which we will not compromise”. 

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Johnson insisted that Britain would not “bargain” with Moscow over the sovereignty and independence of central European allies.

“We are not going to treat the nations at the heart of our Continent as pawns on a chessboard, to be haggled over or sacrifice,” he wrote. “Every independent state, including Ukraine, has a sovereign right to decide its own foreign policy and seek its own alliances.”

The UK has already put 1,000 troops on alert amid fears of “a humanitarian crisis that could lead to a mass displacement of people”, said the i news site.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who will attend talks in Moscow tomorrow, told the BBC’s Breakfast programme that Russia needed to be shown that the UK would “stand by” fellow Nato members.

At a news briefing with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels this morning, Johnson warned that “the stakes are very high” and predicted that the next few days would be the “most dangerous moment”.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/955718/boris-johnson-liz-truss-ukraine-russia