Boris Johnson has called Vladimir Putin a “f—— idiot” and told the Russian leader: “No more empire.”
The former prime minister made the comments as he declared that Ukraine and other Eastern European countries would never rejoin the “Russian imperium”.
He also warned that the West was in “retreat” and that Donald Trump would not “do everything … to help Ukraine” unless Nato members started spending more on defence.
Mr Johnson told Delfi, a Baltic news website: “What Putin is doing is archaic and barbaric, and he needs to understand that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – none of these countries are part of the Russian imperium anymore. And nor is Ukraine.
“It’s over – over, over, over.
“No more empire, Vladimir, you f—— idiot,” he said, adding: “Excuse my language.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Johnson warned world leaders that they needed to renew efforts for Ukraine to join Nato to deter a future Russian invasion.
“People have stopped talking about it. And I think that’s a great, great loss, because the West is retreating again,” he said.
“We have to be much more decisive. We will not solve the Ukraine problem without Article 5 guarantees or long-term Nato membership.”
The former prime minister hit out at Germany and other Nato members for demanding that Mr Trump send aid to Ukraine while failing to live up to their military spending commitments.
“Until we get serious about that, I don’t see how we can convince the Trump administration to do everything it can to help Ukraine,” he said.
“I don’t see how Germany can just sit there and refuse to spend enough on defence, demand that Trump help Ukraine, and say they don’t want to send frozen Russian 300 billion to Ukraine. It’s absurd.”
Mr Johnson also complained that “stupid” objections by officials to arming Ukraine meant that British anti-tank missiles only arrived in the country about a month before the Russian invasion.
“The problem was the British system itself – our officials in the Foreign Office and elsewhere who simply … made the stupidest arguments,” he said.
“I’m not saying they were stupid, but I think their objections were wrong.”
Mr Johnson is credited with galvanising European support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February 2022.
He was the first Western leader to visit Kyiv following the outbreak of war, and returned to the Ukrainian capital twice more during his time in office.
