Kyiv, May 4 (FN Agency) The West was too slow to act over Russian aggression in Ukraine, UK Prime Minister said while addressing Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday. Speaking as the first western leader to address members of the Verkhovna Rada since the beginning of the conflict, Johnson said Ukraine’s allies “cannot make the same mistake” as they did over the 2014 Crimea invasion, BBC reported. He said the West was “too slow to grasp what was really happening” and “failed” to jointly impose sanctions against Vladimir Putin. The UK PM called the Ukrainian fight against the Russian forces as “Ukraine’s finest hour”. He said, “It is precisely because of your valour, your courage, your sacrifice, that Ukrainians now control your own destiny. “You are the masters of your fate, and no one can or should impose anything on Ukrainians. We in the UK will be guided by you and we are proud to be your friends.” The Guardian quoted the PM as saying that he had “one message for you today: Ukraine will win, Ukraine will be free”.
He said, “No outsider like me can speak lightly about how the conflict could be settled if only Ukraine would relinquish this or that piece or territory or we find some compromise for Vladimir Putin. “We know what happens to the people left in the clutches of this invader. And we who are your friends must be humble about what happened in 2014, because Ukraine was invaded before for the first time, when Crimea was taken from Ukraine and the war in Donbas began. “The truth is that we were too slow to grasp what was really happening and we collectively failed to impose the sanctions then that we should have put on Vladimir Putin. We cannot make the same mistake again.” He assured Kyiv that the UK would make a long-term commitment to Ukraine’s security. He said, “We will carry on supplying Ukraine, alongside your other friends, with weapons, funding and humanitarian aid, until we have achieved our long-term goal, which must be so to fortify Ukraine that no one will ever dare to attack you again.”
Ahead of the speech, Johnson announced a £300m package of military aid including electronic warfare equipment, a counter-battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment and thousands of night vision devices, The Guardian reported. The Prime Minister said that the Russian soldiers “no longer have the excuse of not knowing what they are doing” and said those troops who remained “are committing war crimes, and their atrocities emerge wherever they are forced to retreat – as we’ve seen at Bucha, at Irpin at Hostomel and many other places”. Paying tribute to Ukraine’s armed forces, the PM said, “They fought with the energy and courage of lions. “You have exploded the myth of Putin’s invincibility and you have written one of the most glorious chapters in military history and in the life of your country. The so-called irresistible force of Putin’s war machine has broken on the immoveable object of Ukrainian patriotism and love of country. “This is Ukraine’s finest hour, that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.”