Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday during his visit to Kyiv that he opposes any attempt to hold talks and normalize relations with Russia over its ongoing military operation in Ukraine.
“We must fight any creeping attempt to normalize relations with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin… We also know that this is not the time to advance some flimsy plan for negotiation with someone who is simply not interested. You can’t negotiate with a bear while it’s eating your leg, and you can’t negotiate with a street robber who has pinned you to the floor,” Johnson told a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, reported Sputnik.
The negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would be impossible even if Putin offered them, Johnson said.
“There is no negotiation, there is no offer. Vladimir Putin is not even offering a negotiation. And even if he were, it’s hard to see how you could, how the people of Ukraine could negotiate under current circumstances,” Johnson added.
On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces. In response, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow.
