Johnson to make European tour over Ukraine crisis
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A British government spokesperson says London is seeking to provide support for Ukraine, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Europe again to "defuse" the crisis.
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a European tour in the coming week as part of efforts to "defuse" the Ukraine crisis, his office said Sunday.
The statement came after the UK's Defense Minister suggested some nations were not taking an enough strong stand against Moscow, as fears grow among some western countries that Russia is allegedly preparing to "invade" Ukraine.
Johnson will hold talks with other world leaders and is particularly keen to talk to the Nordic and Baltic countries, the statement from Downing Street said.
"The crisis on Ukraine's border has reached a critical juncture," claimed a Downing Street spokesperson.
He alleged that "all the information we have suggests Russia could be planning an invasion of Ukraine at any moment," adding that "this would have disastrous consequences for both Ukraine and Russia."
The spokesperson mentioned that Johnson would work with Britain's allies to try to head off the crisis.
Two weeks ago, Johnson traveled to Kyiv to offer his support to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The US and the UK accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of planning an "attack" on Ukraine before the end of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on February 20.
It is noteworthy that Johnson announced the deployment of an additional 350 British troops to the eastern European country, an extra number to the 100 British military engineers that were deployed last year during the migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarussian border.
Moscow denies any intention to invade Ukraine and demands that the US-led NATO alliance pull its forces out of eastern Europe and pledge to never expand into Ukraine, demands Washington and other Western countries have rejected.
Several rounds of talks in recent days have failed to make progress towards resolving the crisis, which Westerners described as one of the most serious since the end of the Cold War three decades ago.
