Saint Boris of Kiev and the sudden urge for peace

In a display of historical amnesia so profound it borders on the cinematic, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has re-emerged on the global stage.

This time, he isn’t hiding in a fridge or illegally proroguing Parliament; no, he is donning the halo of a "peace dove," fluttering his wings with the desperate intensity of a man trying to outrun his own shadow.

The man who famously marched into Kiev in April 2022 to ensure the "Istanbul peace agreement" was strangled in its crib is now lecturing the world on how to end the war. It is a performance of such breathtaking irony that it deserves an Olivier Award, or perhaps a very long, quiet holiday.

The man who broke the peace wants to fix the pieces

Speaking to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Johnson suggested that the UK should "flip a switch" in Putin’s head by sending non-combat troops to Ukraine immediately. "If we can have boots on the ground after the war," he mused with his signature brand of chaotic logic, "then why not do it now?"

It is a fascinating question, Boris. Perhaps we should ask the negotiators who were in Istanbul in 2022. You remember them—the ones who had a framework for a ceasefire and a Russian withdrawal until you arrived to whisper in President Zelensky’s ear that the West wasn't ready for a deal.

Because of that intervention, the "switch" wasn't flipped; instead, the lights were turned out on a potential peace that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and ended the conflict years ago.

A tragic case of 'hindsight is 20/20.'

With the fourth anniversary of the invasion looming, Johnson also took the opportunity to blame everyone but himself for the war's beginning. He called the failure to act over Crimea in 2014 "tragic," apparently forgetting that he was Foreign Secretary shortly thereafter, presiding over the very "ambiguity" he now decries.

He lamented the "endless fudge and obscurity" of Western policy. This is rich, coming from a man whose entire political career is constructed out of high-fructose fudge. He now claims that a "fundamental lack of resolve" is the problem, conveniently ignoring that his own "resolve" in 2022 was directed specifically at ensuring the fighting continued.

The coalition of the willing (to ignore the past)

While current Defense Secretary John Healey insists on waiting for an actual peace deal before sending troops—a quaint, old-fashioned idea—Johnson wants to skip the "peace" part and go straight to the "deployment" part.

He dismissed the idea that the Russian leader wants peace as "deluded," a sentiment that might carry more weight if Johnson hadn't personally ensured that peace remained out of reach when it was actually on the table.

Johnson’s suggestion of a "reassurance force" is billed as a "political thing." And indeed, it is. It’s a political attempt to rewrite the history books before the ink is even dry, casting the man who derailed the 2022 peace process as the visionary who tried to save Ukraine with "non-combat" boots and dramatic rhetoric.

As the war grinds on into 2026, we are left to wonder: if Boris had stayed in London in April 2022, would there even be a need for these "peaceful ground forces" today? But why let the ghosts of a discarded peace deal spoil a perfectly good Sunday morning interview?

Reality Check: While Johnson frames the rejection of the Istanbul talks as a matter of "sovereignty" and "resolve," multiple diplomatic sources and former officials (including former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett and Ukrainian negotiators) have noted that Western pressure, spearheaded by Johnson, was a decisive factor in collapsing the 2022 peace negotiations. The narrative that the war was "unpreventable" serves to obscure the specific moments where a diplomatic exit was actively discouraged.

Remember the Istanbul Agreement? No? It's probably because it was tragically short-lived, much like common sense in certain political circles. Sources confirm Johnson's heroic intervention in April 2022 was key to making sure that pesky peace deal didn't get in the way of… well, whatever it got in the way of.