Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stated that, prior to the full-scale invasion, a senior official in the German Chancellor\u2019s office suggested that, if war was inevitable, it would be better for Ukraine to lose quickly so that it would all be over. Johnson said he categorically rejected such logic and still considers it to be flawed.<\/p>\n
Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n Boris Johnson<\/strong> He spoke of a senior official from the German Chancellor\u2019s office who, prior to the invasion, had put forward the argument that the war would end quickly as a result of Ukraine\u2019s defeat.<\/p>\n \u00abA senior official in the German Chancellor\u2019s office said to me before the invasion: \u00abWouldn\u2019t it be better if it were all over quickly, if the Ukrainians lost and that was the end of it?\u00bb I strongly disagreed \u2013 and I still believe he was wrong.\u00bb<\/i>.<\/p>\n Back in November 2022, Johnson had already expressed a similar, broader assessment of the pre-war mood in Berlin. At the time, a German government spokesperson Steffen Gebe\u0161trait<\/strong> rejected these claims and described them as untrue.<\/p>\n The former prime minister described this episode as symptomatic of what he considers to be a fundamentally flawed strategy adopted by Berlin and Paris following the occupation of Crimea and leading up to the outbreak of the major war. He compared their approach to that of \u00abfamily therapists\u00bb who view one state\u2019s attack on another as a mere conflict.<\/p>\n Since 2014, Germany and France have been key participants in the Normandy Format, alongside Ukraine and Russia, and have supported the diplomatic efforts surrounding the Minsk Agreements. Johnson\u2019s position is that this approach was misguided.<\/p>\n\n
A conversation with an official from the Chancellor\u2019s Office<\/h2>\n
Criticism of the diplomatic approach taken by Berlin and Paris<\/h2>\n