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Hard To See A Way Back To World Stage For Putin, Says PM

Relations between Russian president Vladimir Putin and the West are beyond repair following his invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson has said.

The prime minister said he “cannot see for the life of me” how relations with Putin could be “renormalised”.

“Repentance is going to be very difficult for Vladimir Putin now,” Mr Johnson.

It comes after the UK signed mutual security pacts with Nordic states Finland and Sweden.

Russia has warned Sweden and neighbour Finland, with whom it shares a lengthy land border, against joining defence alliance Nato, and has warned of “consequences”.

Johnson said the world risked a repeat of 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

“The world basically said, this is appalling. We condemn it, we denounce it — and we did. And we put on sanctions. But at the same time, we kind of opened negotiations with him about a way forward,” LBC quoted him as saying. “And Putin basically used that as a way of twisting the knife in Ukraine.”

“If the Ukrainians were to do any kind of deal with Putin now, the risk is that he would do exactly the same thing and they know it. So the short answer is no. No renormalisation and the UK is very clear about that.”

‘Twisting the knife’

Mr Johnson, who agreed mutual security pacts with Sweden and Finland on Wednesday, warned against making the same mistakes made over the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.

“The world basically said, this is appalling: we condemn it, we denounce it – and we did. And we put on sanctions.

“But at the same time, we kind of opened negotiations with him about a way forward”.

“And Putin basically used that as a way of twisting the knife in Ukraine.”

“If the Ukrainians were to do any kind of deal with Putin now, the risk is that he would do exactly the same thing and they know it.

“So the short answer is no. No renormalisation – and the UK is very clear about that.”

US intelligence has warned Putin is preparing for a long war in Ukraine, with even Russian victory in the east of the country – where fierce fighting continues – potentially not ending the conflict.

It comes as the UK has pledged an extra £1.3bn in military support to Ukraine as forces there push back the Russian invasion.

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