PRESIDENT Trump could end the war in Ukraine by the end of the year if he imposes tougher sanctions on Russia, according to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In an exclusive interview with GB News, he said Putin is in a far weaker position than is realised and that an economic “punishment beating” would result in an end to the conflict.

Johnson said he would back the deployment of British troops to Ukraine and praised the US for being willing to back a peacekeeping force.

He also defended his record on immigration and urged the government to perform a U-turn on the Rwanda deportation deal which was scrapped by Sir Keir Starmer.

The former PM claimed he would have won the last General Election if he was still in office

Johnson also denied using weight-loss jabs this summer but said the treatments have “great potential”.

Boris Johnson GB News.jpeg

Speaking to Katherine Forster on GB News, he said: “The first thing to say about the Ukrainians is that they remain absolutely heroic. After more than three years of war, they are still unbeaten.

“Putin still holds less than 20% of their country. He has, still can’t capture those bits of the east, you know, Pokrovsk, all that bit around there that everybody said he was going to get about a year ago. He’s making glacial progress. In fact, he’s being reversed.

“And whatever people say about Trump – and look, I understand people’s frustration about the kind of moral equivalence that is drawn between Russia and Ukraine by the White House. It’s infuriating to hear this kind of thing. We know who’s in the right. It’s black and white. It’s good versus evil.

“Ukraine is a completely innocent wronged party. We all know that it was…sick-making to watch Putin being welcomed to America like that. We all know that. But Trump, to be fair to him has actually continued to let the weapons go to Ukraine, which is the most important thing.

“He has actually toughened sanctions on those who use Russian hydrocarbons and putting big tariffs on the Indians, who are big buyers of Putin’s oil and gas. That’s something very, very serious. It’s something that has driven the Indians to try and source their oil and gas from elsewhere.

“It’s something that we in the UK whatever are posturing, have not yet done ourselves. And so look what I think needs to happen now is that, yes, you said punishment beating. I think that’s right. I think what is needed now is for Donald Trump to follow his instincts, really toughen up on economic sanctions.

“And I think that Putin is in a much, much weaker position than people say. I mean, Russia is getting really mauled on its hydrocarbon production by Ukraine. I think the problems they’ve got in the refineries are very serious.

“You’re seeing a 10% reduction in Russia’s output of gasoline. You’re seeing shortages of fuel. Inflation is going up, as I say. Couple that with failure on the battlefield, Putin’s position, and what I would say to President Trump, and sometimes I do communicate this, what I would say is, look, Putin’s position is much, much weaker than people think, I think probably weaker than Putin’s advisors are telling him.

“And I think if, if Donald Trump applies the pressure that he can and he’s then backed up by Britain and Europe, you know, I think that there can be a real change here, and I think this war could be over by the end of the year.”

Asked if he is comfortable with the prospect of British troops being deployed to Ukraine, he said: “Yes, I am, but only in the context clearly of a victory for Ukraine, but in a secure Ukraine, because that’s what you need, or peace that can be properly managed.

“Look, be in no doubt, the most effective guarantors of Ukrainian freedom are going to be the Ukrainian armed forces. They are heroes. They have shown that they have the capacity to defend their country. What we need to do is to continue to give them the equipment and, sure in the context of a peace, then, yes, the UK and other countries can backfill and provide training and reassurance.

“And by the way, another thing that Donald Trump has said is that he is willing, and he is going further here than Biden ever did. Joe Biden never did. Trump is saying that he is willing to back that peacekeeping force up with intelligence, with logistics, even with air power. That’s a massive thing for the US to commit to.”

He agreed that UK border security currently is not what it should be and defended his record on immigration and said he was “speaking as the prime minister who brought migration in the first full year of my premiership down to its lowest level for 40 years”.

Johnson added: “And what you had then of course was post covid. You had lots of EU students coming back. You had the Ukrainians. You had… and that was quite right. But what I also did was take back control of our borders.

“So I took back legal control of everybody coming in legally. The problem by leaving the EU and if you remember, there were various models of Brexit on offer, and the one that my immediate predecessor was offering was basically remaining in the single market. That was no good, because we didn’t get back control of our borders.

“We got back full legal control, and we had a plan, which I think I announced only a couple of months before, tragically, I had to leave office in April 22 or thereabouts, with the Rwanda plan. And actually, it is the right plan. It is, you know – what’s so infuriating is to watch a brilliant British idea, which is what the Rwanda plan was, now being taken up by other countries.”

Recalling a press visit to Rwanda, he said: “It was amazing…we had all these sort of quite tough egg lefty journalists, the BBC and so on. We showed them the accommodation that people were going to have in Rwanda under the plan, and they melted. They could see that it made sense.

“What it would have meant is you arrive in one of these dinghies from Calais, whatever, from the French beaches, and immediately, no lawyers, no, you’re processed in Rwanda.”

On a General Election being called before the plan was put into action and the rise of Reform UK, Johnson said: “I didn’t, frankly, I didn’t call the election. I would have won the election. They were on 0%, those guys were on 0%.

“We are where we are. I think, what the, seriously, what the government should do, what Yvette Cooper should do, is swallow a lot of pride and implement the Rwanda plan. That’s what they need to do. They should go back to Kigali. They should say, look, we’ve goofed, we’ve made a big mistake.”

He added: “They’ve done plenty of other U-turns. They did a U-turn on the winter fuel payments, why don’t they do a U-turn on this?”

Asked if the UK should leave the ECHR, he said: “There’s no single thing you can…leaving the ECHR on its own doesn’t fix this, right? I think it does help in a lot of cases, I’ve come round to it, definitely. But it’s the Rwanda plan. It’s the thought that you’re sitting in Calais and you’re thinking, what’s going to happen to me when I arrive in Kent?

“Am I going to get immediately taken to a hotel? Am I going to get – are UK lawyers immediately going to hand me their cards saying you’ve got a problem ring me up? Or am I going to find myself immediately flown to an East African, Central African country?

“It would be, that’s what we need to do. And actually, Chris Philp, the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary…has done a very good job of holding the government to account on this and reminding them of their failure on Rwanda. I mean Starmer was more sympathetic as soon as he actually went to Albania.

“Do you remember that thing when he went to Albania to try and do a Rwanda-style deal with Edi Rama? Edi Rama told him to bog off, basically. That’s what we need to do.”

On his trim appearance in recent pictures of him on holiday, Johnson said: “Me gorgeous? No, no, no.

“I’ve been doing a lot of swimming. It wasn’t the fat jab. I can tell you that.

“I did try it before, and it was, it was basically a lot of swimming and trying to eat a bit less. But I’m going to, I promise you, I put it back on so fast it is terrifying. So I do think the fat jab has great potential. I really do.

“I think it’s a…but what about the fat pill? That’s what I want. When are they going to make it into a pill?”