Great Britain: Escape to the crisis zone

SZ.de Great Britain: Escape to the crisis zone By Stefan Kornelius - Yesterday at 21:41 Why the scandal-plagued British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is traveling to Ukraine right now. Escape to the crisis zone British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not often distinguished himself as a statesman and foreign policymaker. He has enough problems at home, the pandemic is restricting travel, and the Brexit Prime Minister does not seem to want to go on reconciliation trips to the EU partners of yore. So it is particularly poignant that Johnson is traveling to Europe's military crisis zone at the climax of his own domestic political crisis to assure Ukraine of Britain's support. Johnson met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Tuesday. Third in the group was Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The message of the coordinated visits was clear: Here come the country's most loyal supporters, who, unlike France or Germany, also supply weapons. The British had sent 3,000 anti-tank weapons in the past few days, including 30 trainers for the Ukrainians. In time for Morawiecki's visit, the Polish armed forces also offered "defensive weapons", Grom-type shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. British Ukraine policy is dazzling and loud - for weeks now, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace have been outdoing each other in dramatic descriptions of the situation and action-packed politics. Truss was photographed in Estonia near the Russian border wearing a steel helmet and camouflage patch on a tank and under the waving Union Jack. Similarities with the tank images of the legendary Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, who had led the British into the Falklands War, may well have been intentional. And Wallace roused NATO in a sensational article and warned in pithy terms of the Russian threat, only to immediately announce a meeting with Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu - which, however, did not take place. Both Wallace and Truss are considered potential successors to Boris Johnson in the internal British government crisis. A demonstrative solidarity with Poland A week ago, British intelligence services drew global attention with information that pro-Russian forces were about to stage an orchestrated transfer of power in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government felt compelled to appease itself, as the information proved to be of little value. On Monday, the Foreign Secretary underpinned Britain's resolve when she introduced legislation to the House of Commons that will give the government broader sanctions power against Russian companies. The most important detail: For the first time, the British government would also be able to attack the assets of Russian oligarchs in Great Britain and change the permissive visa policy. Truss spoke of the strongest course change in sanctions policy since leaving the EU. It is the constant references to the EU, the demonstrative solidarity with Poland and taunts - allegedly denied rights of arms transporters to fly over Germany - that give British politics a strong anti-European and nationalist note. The message is hard to miss: we don't have to be considerate of other Europeans and are aggressively standing up to Russia. The publication of the sanctions plans goes well beyond the procedures of the EU or the United States, which remain silent, preferring quiet diplomacy and more or less discreet threatening messages to Moscow. Truss and Wallace, on the other hand, never tire of chanting the battle cry of "Global Britain in action," with which the Johnson government is underscoring its foreign policy freedom after leaving the EU. That doesn't go down well in France. There the memories of the failed submarine deal with Australia are still fresh. In the autumn, Great Britain and the USA had secretly booted out the French.