How Boris Johnson and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s friendship ‘blossomed’

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been heaping praise on Boris Johnson as the UK emerges as one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters against Russian aggression.

In an interview with The Economist as the Ukraine war raged on for a fifth week, Zelenskyy said Johnson was “helping more” in the battle against Russia than other Nato nations, in part due to the support of the British public.

“The leaders of countries react according to how their constituents act. In this case, Johnson is an example,” said the Ukrainian leader.

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‘Britain on side’

Comparing Britain’s stance on supplying weapons to Ukraine with that of other Nato world leaders, Zelenskyy told The Economist that “Britain is definitely on our side”.

“It is not performing a balancing act,” he continued. “Britain sees no alternative for the way out of the situation. Britain wants Ukraine to win and Russia to lose.”

His warm words for Britain and its prime minister contrasted sharply with his comments about Emmanuel Macron, who last week rejected Johnson’s suggestion that the West could provide tanks to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy accusing the French president of being “afraid” of Russia, adding: “And that’s it. And those who say [no] first are the first to be afraid.”

The Ukrainian leader also told the magazine that Germany was “trying to be balanced” over the war, a tactic that he said was a “mistake”.

“They have a long relationship with Russia and they are looking at the situation through the prism of the economy,” said Zelenskky. “They help out at times. I think they are trying to adjust to the situation as it develops. They are also looking at how the situation affects their own country.”

The Ukrainian leader voiced mixed feelings about the US too. The White House had “pushed a lot of countries to help us, but a little bit more slowly than we needed”, he said.

‘Charming guy’

A close relationship has “blossomed” between Johnson and Zelenskyy since the Russian invasion began, said The Sunday Times. The two leaders are believed to speak on the phone almost every day.

And in an interview with the paper, Johnson described Zelenskyy as an “absolutely charming guy” who has “proved to be an inspiration and a heroic war leader”.

“Such is the bond” between them that Johnson has “not ruled out visiting” Zelenskyy in Ukraine, the paper reported. The PM said he had offered refuge in the UK to Zelenskyy and his family, but added that the president had “been clear, his duty is to the Ukrainian people, he’s going to stay there”.

Pundits have also noted the close relationship between the duo. According to The Economist’s Russia editor Arkady Ostrovsky, who recently visited Zelesnkyy in his war bunker in Kyiv, the Ukrainian president believes Johnson is one of the few leaders who view peace in Europe as more important than “just energy bills”.

Zelenskyy “genuinely feels that Britain is the only country, or one of the very few countries that, as he put it, has ‘independence and bravery’ to not to be particularly balanced, and to do the right thing,” Ostrovsky told Andrew Marr on his LBC show on Monday.

“Not to think about pragmatism, but to understand what’s at stake here, and what’s at stake is peace in Europe, not just energy bills.”

The Churchill factor

For Johnson, forging an alliance with Zelenskyy is likely to have been “a natural impulse”, said The New York Times (NYT). Both leaders “share a sense of the moment”.

Wartime leader Winston Churchill is Johnson’s “hero” and the subject of a biography by the now PM. Zelenskyy appeared to capitalise on that admiration when he quoted from Churchill’s “we shall fight on the beaches” speech during a recent speech via video link to MPs in the House of Commons.

Johnson, in turn, has also “identified that Zelensky is very much the man of the moment”, Simon Fraser, a former head of Britain’s Foreign Office, told the US paper. “Politically, that is very astute. Boris has a nose for these things,” Fraser said.

And the outbreak of war in Ukraine has “quieted, at least for now, the uproar over illicit holiday parties” at Downing Street during Covid lockdowns, said the NYT. Johnson was able to “seize the mantle of a global statesman” as he took on “an early role in supplying Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons and pushing Western allies to impose more crippling financial sanctions on Russia”.

In many ways, the two leaders seem to be “natural bedfellows”, agreed the Financial Review’s Europe correspondent Hans van Leeuwen. “Johnson’s buoyancy and boosterism is probably just the kind of thing that Zelensky, hunkered in a bunker, needs to hear now.”

And “quite apart” from Johnson’s need to move on from his partygate woes – once again making waves in the UK press after 20 Downing Street officials were fined for breaking lockdown rules – the war in Ukraine “is the geopolitical moment he has been waiting for”, van Leeuwen continued.

Until now, the “Brexiteer-in-chief” has “lacked an opportunity to demonstrate how ‘Global Britain’ can use its post-Brexit freedom of diplomatic manoeuvre to be a dynamic mover and shaker on the world stage”.

But while supporting Ukraine against Russia is currently popular with the British public, van Leeuwen added, it remains to be seen whether Johnson will continue backing Ukraine “to the hilt” in the “quite likely event that it becomes more difficult, costly and unpopular to do so”.