Liz Truss, the British prime minister, took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce that she spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the phone to promise “steadfast” support and refusal to never recognize Russia’s “sham referendums.”
“I thanked him for helping secure the release of 5 British nationals & discussed ways to protect [Ukrainian] gas supplies,” she said. “Putin must fail.”
Truss has faced tough criticism after her government announced tax cuts for that even the Banksters at the International Monetary Fund questioned. Critics called her out for not commenting on the financial turmoil in her country.
“You’re alive,” Mike Galsworthy, a commentator, tweeted. “Liz, you’re not going to believe what’s been going on outside your bedroom.”
Another wrote, “Need to stop playing same game as Johnson and hiding behind the Ukraine when the UK is in crisis. You initiated the collapse of the ££, mortgage market and pension funds. You then run and hide and then it is announced cuts to pay for your bonus for the rich – you lied in hustings.”
Truss’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, was one of the most vocal critics against Russia’s invasion. He has been blamed for killing peace negotiations in the crib.
An article in Foreign Affairs, penned by Russian experts Fiona Hill and Angela Stent, noted that Moscow and Kyiv “appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement” in April 2022. The deal would have involved Ukraine promising Russia it will not join NATO, and, in turn, Russian forces would head back to their positions before the invasion and Ukraine would receive security guarantees from other countries.
Ukrainska Pravda focused on a meeting in April in Kyiv between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The paper reported that Johnson had two messages for Zelensky. He said Putin cannot be trusted because he is a war criminal, and that the West was not ready for a peaceful settlement.
The paper noted that days after Johnson left Ukraine, Putin announced that talks with Ukraine “had turned into a dead end.”