“Looking at what Trump is saying, looking at what [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth is saying, they’re not betraying Ukraine,” Johnson argued.
“They’re not walking away from Ukraine. They’re saying Ukraine’s got to be a sovereign, prosperous country. They’re saying that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can’t win. They’re saying that they’ll continue to support Ukraine.”
Since leaving office in 2022, Johnson has regularly visited the United States and lobbied top Republicans to maintain support for Kyiv amid signs of wavering.
He has held talks with Trump on Ukraine, and met him at the Republican National Convention last July.
Johnson defended the U.S. president’s call for European nations to spend more on defense, saying “the American people elected him on a mandate to get value” — and stressed the U.K., now led by the Labour rival to his Conservative Party, needs to lead.
“What Trump is trying to say to the Europeans, to us Brits, to everyone, is man up and step up, or person up,” he said.
