MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Johnson warns Russian mothers their sons will not return if Putin attacks Ukraine

If Russia attacked Ukraine, “I shudder to contemplate the tragedy that would ensue,” Johnson said.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday launched a warning to Russian mothers, saying that their sons were not likely to return home if President Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine, as tensions in the region escalate.

A Russian invasion would turn Ukraine into a “wasteland” and risk the worst bloodshed of any European conflict since World War II, Johnson also pointed out.

The UK Prime Minister warned Putin it would be “futile” to invade. He also admitted he feared Russia was on the brink of a war that would “deserve the condemnation of history.” Johnson made those remarks after urgent talks last night with Western allies including the US.

“We cannot bargain away a vision of a Europe whole and free that emerged in those amazing years of 1989 to 1991,“ Johnson told the UK Parliament and added Britain will ”contribute“ to any new NATO deployments if Russia invades Ukraine and that Western allies will react ”in unison“ to any Russian provocation, by imposing sanctions ”heavier than anything we have done before.“

Johnson also underscored how the UK is leading NATO troops in Estonia and last week supplied anti-armour missiles and a small training team of British troops to Ukraine, where the Army has trained 21,000 Ukrainian troops since 2015.

However, Johnson insisted his Government was ”focused 100% on dealing with the people's priorities, including the UK's leading role in protecting freedom around the world“. If Russia attacked Ukraine, he said: ”I shudder to contemplate the tragedy that would ensue,“ he went on.

”Ukrainians have every moral and legal right to defend their country and I believe their resistance would be dogged and tenacious, and the bloodshed comparable to the first war in Chechnya, or Bosnia, or any other conflict that Europe has endured since 1945,“ Johnson added. ”No-one would gain from such a catastrophe,” he insisted.

The Prime Minister also admitted some British Embassy staff in Kyiv were leaving the area but the embassy itself remained open to provide consular assistance to British nationals in Ukraine.