Boris Johnson Does Not Support Call For Russians To Assassinate Their Own President Vladimir Putin
Boris Johnson has rejected calls for the Russian people to assassinate their president Vladimir Putin (Alamy)
3 min read
The Prime Minister has rejected a call from a senior American politician for the Russian people to assassinate their own president Vladimir Putin.
The US Senator Lindsay Graham made the comments a week into the illegal invasion by Moscow of Ukraine, which overnight saw the shelling of a nuclear power station.
“The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” Graham tweeted. “You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service."
Asked if Boris Johnson would back such a move, his official spokesperson said: “No.
“We stand with the Ukrainian people in demanding the immediate end to the Russian invasion.
“We’ve said before that Putin must be held to account in front of an international court for the horrific act he’s committed.”
He added: “We want to see Putin and the Russian government held to account in front of an international court.”
But Johnson is concerned for the safety of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Downing Street said, after reports he has been the subject of multiple attempts on his life.
He has regularly spoken to Zelensky in recent weeks after Putin’s forces begun amassing on his country’s border, and repeatedly expressed his personal admiration of him.
"Of course, everybody's concerned for the safety and welfare of the President of Ukraine and the rest of the government, as well as the people of Ukraine who we've seen indiscriminately targeted over recent days,” the spokesperson added.
The most recent call between Johnson and Zelensky took place overnight, after Russian forces shelled the power station in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
The attack continued even as emergency services tried to put out the resulting fire, with the British prime minister warning this could "directly threaten the safety of all of Europe”.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the fire did not cause a change in the plant's radiation level and nor had the shelling or fire caused any damage to "essential" equipment.
Justice secretary Dominic Raab said the shelling of the nuclear site is "an affront to the world at large”, telling Times Radio: "It is clearly reckless, irresponsible and not only the fact they were shooting, bombarding that particular site, but when the Ukrainian emergency authorities were trying to put out the fire, the shelling continued."
Johnson has called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in light of the attack, and he is speaking to the Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić about the situation this lunchtime.
The foreign secretary Liz Truss will join foreign ministers from Nato and the European Union for a series of crisis talks in Brussels, and the home secretary Priti Patel is visiting Poland's border with Ukraine to discuss the situation for those fleeing the invasion.
Truss will also attend a special meeting of Nato foreign ministers and hold talks with counterparts from the G7 group.
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