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British Ex-PM Johnson in Texas to Urge Republicans to Keep Arming Ukraine

In this image provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ahead of their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, June 17, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
In this image provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ahead of their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, June 17, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) - Sputnik International, 1920, 23.05.2023
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Boris Johnson has played a central role in NATO's proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine. In April 2022 he persuaded President Volodymyr Zelensky to back out of a peace deal. He also persuaded fellow European leaders to arm Kiev and sanction Moscow.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson has urged US republicans to keep backing Democrat President Joe Biden's arms supplies to Ukraine.
The former PM flew to the US state of Texas to address some two dozen of the lone star state's of top conservative politicians, businessmen and campaign donors.

"I just urge you all to stick with it. It will pay off massively in the long run," Johnson told the gathering.

“You are backing the right horse. Ukraine is going to win. They are going to defeat Putin,” he insisted, despite news that day that the Russian forces had liberated the key Donbass city of Artemovsk.
Republicans in the US Congress are currently locked in a stand-off with the Democratic administration, which insists it must raise its 'debt ceiling' borrowing limit from $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion to cover spending approved in the annual budget.

More radical Republican representatives and senators openly oppose military aid to Kiev — to the tune of at least $48 billion — while the US faces multiple crises at home, with some accusing the government of "money-laundering" for Biden, whose son Hunter was made an executive of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

But the octogenarian president has vowed the arms supplies will continue even if the federal government is forced to shut down.
Johnson's trip was organised by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA, a cross-party, pro-Ukraine Washington lobby group.
"We wanted to make that case outside of Washington — where we all live in a bubble — and to really take it to the heartland, to places like Texas, to get more support for Ukraine, and make the case to people who are sceptical about that support," said CEPA's Ukrainian-born president and CEO Alina Polyakova.
She added that Johnson enjoyed "a lot of credibility as well with the base of the Republican Party" because former US president Donald Trump "had nice things to say about him when he was the president."
Ukrainian servicemen load a truck with the FGM-148 Javelin, American man-portable anti-tank missile provided by US to Ukraine as part of a military support, upon its delivery at Kiev's airport Borispol on February 11, 2022 - Sputnik International, 1920, 23.05.2023
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Johnson has been one of the most strident supporters on the eastern shores of the Atlantic of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
In early April 2022 he flew to Kiev to urge Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to break off peace talks with Russia, which were on the verge of a peace agreement brokered by Turkey and Israel.
He also persuaded leaders of France, Germany and Italy, the three biggest European Union economies, to impose economic sanctions on Russia against their countries' economic interests.
Johnson was forced to resign in the the summer of 2022 after Chris Pincher, who he had appointed as deputy chief whip months earlier, groped a fellow Conservative Party MP at a posh private members' club in London's West End.
That prompted a mass walk-out from his cabinet led by then-chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak. Johnson's reputation had already been damaged by earlier scandals such as 'Partygate' and his expensive refurbishment of the PM's official Downing Street residence at the expense of Conservative Party funds.
His successor Liz Truss, another supporter of confrontation with Moscow, resigned after just six weeks in Downing Street and was replaced by Sunak, who has twice played host to Zelensky.
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