“I ask you to consider the possibility of granting Ukrainian citizenship to Boris Johnson and submit his candidacy for the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine,” reads a petition posted on the website of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, noting “positive aspects of the decision: global support for Boris Johnson, his clear position against the military invasion of Ukraine, His extensive knowledge in the political, financial and legal fields.
Commenting on the decree, a researcher in Russian-European affairs, Basil Al-Hajj Jassem, says that something like this had previously happened in Ukraine by granting citizenship to former officials and other nationalities, the most prominent example was former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who was granted Ukrainian citizenship several years ago and after 2014. He held more than one senior position within Ukraine.
A step towards rapprochement with the West
Basil Al-Hajj added, in exclusive statements to “Sky News Arabia”: Today, it is not excluded that the same thing will be repeated with Boris Johnson, the outgoing Prime Minister of Britain, which, in the eyes of decision-makers in Kyiv, will be a step closer to the West.
On July 23, the British newspaper, The Telegraph, reported that Boris Johnson, who has resigned as Britain’s prime minister, plans to take one last trip to Kyiv before leaving Downing Street for good.
In the same context, Asif Melhem, director of the Moscow-based GCM Center for Studies, says that the Ukrainian announcement is not strange for the same scenario to be repeated with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It is possible to grant him Ukrainian citizenship, hand him a position, and support his candidacy for prime minister of Ukraine.
Asif Melhem, during his statements to “Sky News Arabia”, listed several reasons behind Zelensky’s interest in Johnson, first: since the beginning of the Russian military operation, Johnson visited Kyiv four times, and each time he wished Ukraine a crushing victory over Russia, so Zelensky considers him a friend. the Great for Ukraine; Johnson also put Britain at the forefront of European countries in terms of support for Ukraine, and because of this support he was forced to resign from his position.
And Asif Melhem continued: Second, Johnson’s resignation raised doubts among his Ukrainian allies that the next British prime minister could continue to be committed to Ukraine, as Johnson had been doing.
Third, Johnson has a good level of education and experience in the political, financial and legal fields; Ukraine, in Zelensky’s view, in these difficult circumstances, needs a man of this level of experience.
Melhem added that the last point is that Johnson enjoys good relations with various world leaders, so Zelensky believes that these relations may have an impact on the situation in Ukraine.
Several days ago, a case developed in Ukraine about Zelensky’s decree depriving many public figures of citizenship, among them the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, the people’s deputy, the former head of the Opposition Platform for Life Vadim Rabinovich, and the head of the Defense Headquarters in Dnepropetrovsk Gennady Kurban.
Regarding Johnson, the Ukrainian president expressed hope that the outgoing British prime minister, a “great friend of Ukraine”, would not disappear from public life when he left Downing Street.
With the beginning of the Russian operation in Ukraine last February, Britain joined the line of Western countries that imposed sanctions on Russia described as the strongest in modern history, as sanctions targeted Russian oil refineries, banning Russian aircraft from entering British airspace, and banning some Russian banks from the global payments system Swift. and freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank.
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