Boris Johnson warned that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is “the beginning of a new era of intimidation in Eastern Europe”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that it is “vital” for Russia's invasion of Ukraine to “fail”, considering that if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to be “victorious”, he would “not stop” in that country alone.

Johnson delivered a closing speech today at a Conservative Party Congress in the English city of Blackpool, where the Tory leader addressed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As he noted, the invasion of Russian troops has been motivated by Putin's “fear” of ending a “free and democratic” country like his neighbor.

“Every day that passes through Ukraine's heroic resistance, it becomes clear that Putin has made a catastrophic mistake (...) Why did you decide to invade a totally innocent country? ” Johnson wondered.

The conservative leader pointed out that Putin “didn't really believe that Ukraine was going to join NATO anytime soon, he knew perfectly well that there were no plans to put missiles on Ukrainian soil.”

“I think he was afraid of Ukraine because in Ukraine they have a free press and free elections,” and that threatened his way of running the country, he said.

Johnson called the invasion “the beginning of a new era of intimidation in Eastern Europe” and considered that the world is facing a “turning point”, a time “where you have to choose between freedom and oppression.”

“In Putin's Russia you get jailed for 15 years just for calling an invasion invasion, and if you protest against Putin in an election, you get poisoned or shot,” he recalled.

“It is precisely because Ukraine and Russia have historically had such a close relationship that he was terrified of the effect of the Ukrainian model on him and on Russia,” he said.

The chief executive of London also remarked that “Putin's war is destined to cause economic damage to the West for its benefit.”

“(Putin) He knows that with every dollar of increase in the price of a barrel of oil, he makes billions in profits from oil and gas sales,” he observed.

Putin's troops intensified their attacks and used hypersonic missiles

The Russian Ministry of Defense assured this Saturday that it used hypersonic missiles “Kinjal” the previous day to destroy an underground weapons depot in western Ukraine.

“On March 18, the Kinjal aeronautical complex, with its hypersonic ballistic missiles, destroyed a major underground depot of missiles and ammunition of Ukrainian aviation in the town of Deliatin, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” announced the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov.

This region is located about 50 km from the border with Romania, a NATO member country.

Russia had not so far reported the use of this ballistic missile in the two conflicts in which it is involved, in Syria and in Ukraine. Yes, he had deployed it in maneuvers since he successfully tested it in 2018.

According to the press agency Ria Novosti, this is the first time they would have been used in the invasion of Ukraine.

This type of missile, very manageable, challenges all air defense systems, according to Moscow.

The hypersonic ballistic missiles “Kinjal” and the cruise missiles “Zircon” belong to a family of new weapons developed by Russia and which President Vladimir Putin calls “invincible”.

The “Kinjal”, Russian word meaning dagger, achieved all their targets during the 2018 trials at a distance of more than 1,000 km, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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