On Saturday, Russia banned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and twelve other senior officials from entering the country, citing the British government’s extraordinary hostile acts against Moscow. Any sanctions-related attacks, according to Moscow, will backfire and be emphatically rejected.
The ban also affects nine members of Johnson’s cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, the heads of Foreign Affairs, Elizabeth Truss; Defense, Ben Wallace; Transport; Grant Shapps; Interior; Priti Patel; Economy; Rishi Sunak; Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, and Culture, Nadine Dorries, as well such as the Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey.
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Attorney General for England and Wales Suella Braverman, and former Prime Minister and Conservative MP Theresa May round up the list of those sanctioned. According to Downing Street, Prime Minister Boris Johnson came to Kiev on Saturday to show British “solidarity” with Ukraine, which has been opposing Russian forces for more than 50 days.
During his visit, the prime minister guaranteed Ukraine armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles, and he characterized Ukrainian opposition to the Russian assault as the greatest triumph of the twenty-first century. The Ukrainian embassy in the UK tweeted a photo of Prime Minister Petro Poroshenko and President Volodymyr Zelensky sitting face to face in an office, next to the flags of both countries with the phrase “Surprise.”
According to a spokesman for the British Prime Minister, Jonhson traveled to Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky in person as a show of support for the Ukrainian people and to give a new package of financial and military aid to the eastern European country. The British prime minister last visited Kiev on February 2, just weeks before the Russian invasion, for a joint press conference with Zelensky.
