The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, categorically rejected claims that his visit to Kyiv in spring 2022 caused the halt of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. According to the British ex-prime minister, the decision not to agree to the proposed compromise was made by the Ukrainian leadership itself, and Western leaders could not force Ukrainians to stop fighting. Boris Johnson said this in an interview with the Italian publication La Repubblica, published on 11 April 2026.
Commenting on the widespread version that he went to Kyiv and persuaded the Ukrainian authorities to reject a possible peaceful settlement with Russia, Boris Johnson categorically denied it.
“This is complete, utter nonsense.”
According to Boris Johnson, none of the Western politicians could force Ukrainians to stop resisting. He explained that during his visit he wanted to show support for Volodymyr Zelensky and demonstrate that Ukraine had not been defeated and would continue to fight. Asked directly by the journalist whether the decision to reject the proposed compromise was President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s own decision, the ex-prime minister answered affirmatively.
At the time of Boris Johnson‘s visit the situation near the Ukrainian capital had already changed dramatically. Russian forces, which at the start of the full-scale invasion had tried to capture Kyiv, were forced to retreat from the Kyiv region. Johnson himself told the British parliament on 19 April 2022 that by 6 April Russian forces had been pushed out of the entire Kyiv region, stressing that this was the result of the resistance by the Ukrainian military.
Boris Johnson arrived in Kyiv on 9 April 2022, becoming one of the first G7 leaders to visit Ukraine after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. He then met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the United Kingdom announced further military and financial support for Ukraine.
Boris Johnson had denied the version that he forced the Ukrainian authorities to reject peace before. In an interview published on 24 February 2026, he called such claims a Kremlin fabrication.
However, there is another testimony about the events of spring 2022 — from a person who directly took part in negotiations with the Russian side.
In November 2023, the head of the parliamentary faction “Servant of the People”, David Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian delegation in talks with the Russians, talked about the negotiations in Istanbul and Boris Johnson’s subsequent visit to Kyiv.
According to David Arakhamia, after the Ukrainian delegation returned from Istanbul to Kyiv, Boris Johnson arrived and expressed his position regarding a possible signing of agreements with Russia.
“We will not sign anything with them at all — let’s just keep fighting.”
At the same time, in that same interview David Arakhamia made an important clarification that is often lost in retellings of this story. He did not claim that Ukraine was already ready to sign a peace agreement that Boris Johnson single-handedly scuppered. On the contrary, Arakhamia directly denied such an interpretation.
He explained that the negotiating delegation did not have the legal authority to sign a final agreement on its own. Such a document could theoretically appear only after a further political process and, in particular, possibly a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.
The key Russian demand at the talks was a neutral status for Ukraine and the renunciation of the prospect of joining NATO. According to David Arakhamia, fulfilling such a condition would have required Ukraine to amend its Constitution. In addition, the Ukrainian side did not trust Russian guarantees and feared that after a pause Russia would simply prepare better and attack again.
Thus, there remains a noticeable difference between the public assessments of Boris Johnson and the recollections of David Arakhamia. Johnson categorically denies that he came to stop the negotiations or forced Ukraine to fight. Arakhamia, for his part, recalled that the British prime minister after Istanbul advised not to sign agreements with Russia and to continue the struggle. However, Arakhamia himself did not confirm the simplified version about an already ready “peace agreement” that the British politician allegedly single-handedly ruined.
Earlier we wrote:
- For Russia things will only get worse: Sibiga harshly responded to Putin’s refusal of peace
- Putin refused a meeting with Zelensky, called the letter rude and advised learning from Trump
- “Enough of war”: Zelensky issued a direct challenge to Putin and offered a personal meeting
- Only on equal terms: Zelensky said he was ready for direct talks with Putin, despite America’s expectations
- Trump in Beijing asked Xi to persuade Putin to resume talks on Ukraine
