British PM Boris Johnson Calls Negotiations With President Putin Like Dealing With Crocodiles: That's The Difficulty Of The Ukrainians

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. (Source: president.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine will fail.

Not only that, PM Johnson even compared dealing with President Vladimir Putin to negotiating with a crocodile at your feet.

Speaking on the flight to India, PM Johnson said President Putin might only try to negotiate in earnest, if he manages to seize large swathes of Ukraine.

PM Johnson said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had the utmost approach, to want to regain territory seized by Russia in eastern Ukraine.

But he said he believed President Zelensky was open to negotiations in Crimea, which was annexed by Putin's forces in 2014.

"Ukraine is what determines their future. Nothing has to be decided about Ukraine without Ukraine," said PM Johnson as quoted by The National News, April 21.

"But I think it's very difficult to see how Ukraine can negotiate with Putin now, given his lack of goodwill and a proven strategy, to try to swallow and seize as much of Ukraine as possible, and then maybe have some kind of negotiation from a position of strength, or even to launch another attack in Kyiv," he said.

"So I really don't see how Ukrainians can easily sit down and come to some kind of accommodation."

"How can you negotiate with a crocodile when your foot is in its jaw? That's the difficulty Ukrainians face. I don't see how Putin can be considered a valid interlocutor now."

In contrast to President Putin, PM Johnson said President Zelensky, whom he recently visited in Kyiv and calls frequently, could be open to negotiations in Crimea.

"The view of the President of Ukraine, if I understand it correctly, I spoke to him a lot, he actually wants Russian troops to be removed from their positions in Donetsk and Luhansk," Johnson said.

"That's a pretty maximum position. In Crimea, they're not that optimal," he concluded.