Boris Johnson Goes Ballistic Against Putin, Announces New Sanctions Against Russia, Promises More

Feb. 23, 2022 (EIRNS)—U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a statement to the House of Commons yesterday in which he announced new British sanctions on Russia. “President Putin flagrantly violated the Minsk peace agreements by recognizing the supposed independence of the so-called ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine,” he said, somehow missing the reality that the Kiev regime never implemented the agreements in the first place. “In a single inflammatory speech, he denied that Ukraine had any ‘tradition of genuine statehood,’ claimed that it posed a ‘direct threat to the security of Russia,’ and hurled numerous other false accusations and aspersions.”

“We must now brace ourselves for the next possible stages of Putin’s plan: the violent subversion of areas of eastern Ukraine by Russian operatives and their hirelings, followed by a general offensive by the nearly 200,000 Russian troops gathered on the frontiers, at peak readiness to attack,” Johnson went on.

The White House, in complete alignment with Johnson’s attack, decided yesterday that Russia has invaded Ukraine after all. “We think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia’s latest invasion into Ukraine,” said Jon Finer, principal deputy national security adviser. “An invasion is an invasion and that is what is underway.” The White House decided to begin referring to Russia’s actions as an “invasion” because of the situation on the ground, an unnamed U.S. official told the Associated Press.

The decision means, among other things, that the U.S. will keep supplying weapons to Ukraine.

“The United States will continue to provide defensive assistance to Ukraine in the meantime. And we’ll continue to reinforce and reassure our NATO Allies. We have no intention of fighting Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our Allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO,”

Biden said his televised address on Feb. 22.

The U.S. will also send more troops to NATO’s Eastern frontier. The Department of Defense announced yesterday that Biden had ordered the movement of U.S. forces already in Europe closer to NATO’s eastern borders.