Boris Johnson Ukraine Doc Slammed by Reviewer — SkimNews
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- Channel 5 aired "Boris Johnson: Into Ukraine's Kill Zone," an hour-long documentary following the former PM on a frontline trip to the Russia-Ukraine war zone, opening with a disclaimer that the film presents "Boris Johnson's perspective" and that "views expressed are subjective."
- Throughout frontline segments, Johnson performs what the reviewer calls "blokey camaraderie," repeatedly calling soldiers' weapons "50 cal," assuring a chaplain he'll "pray for Ukraine's victory," and clumsily donning a balaclava and a flak jacket (initially backwards) to remain incognito.
- When bombs explode near the apartment where Johnson and the crew spend their first night on the edge of the kill zone, he observes that if one had hit, "we wouldn't have known a thing about it."
- In a studio segment offering political analysis, Johnson delivers the line: "This thing has gotta stop and the west has just gotta snap out of its complacency."
- The documentary closes with an on-screen caption stating it is "widely acknowledged, including by Ukrainian officials," that Johnson "played a direct part in persuading Kyiv to abandon the Istanbul talks of spring 2022 — that were close to a settlement — in favour of continued fighting."
- That same caption declares he therefore bears "a share of responsibility for the resulting loss of life, Ukrainian, Russian and British alike," with the reviewer concluding the production was one "on which the plug should have been pulled early."
Why it matters: The documentary's own closing caption delivers the reviewer's sharpest point: it credits Johnson with helping kill the spring 2022 Istanbul talks that were, per the production itself, "close to a settlement." That admission — embedded at the end of a film designed to showcase Johnson as Ukraine's champion — undercuts the entire premise, which the reviewer argues amounts to gifting airtime to a man who "undermines the honour and dignity of every fierce, brave, homesick fighter he meets just by being there."
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