Shady mega-donor accompanied Boris Johnson on Ukraine trip – Guardian
A shady donor accompanied former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a staunch supporter of Kiev, on at least one of his visits to Ukraine in 2023, The Guardian has claimed, citing leaked documents.
Christopher Harborne, who donated £1 million ($1.34 million) to the Conservative politician after he left office in the fall of 2022, is the top shareholder in a British weapons manufacturer with alleged ties to the Ukrainian military, the newspaper alleged in an article on Friday.
A representative for Harborne, who has a history of generous donations to political causes in the UK, confirmed the transfer, noting that Johnson’s benefactor “had and has no expectation of personal gain whatsoever.”
“Now leaked files show that Johnson… was accompanied in September 2023 by [Harborne] on a two-day visit [to Ukraine] that included meetings with top officials,” the Guardian claimed.
At the Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum in Kiev, Harborne was supposedly registered as “adviser, Office of Boris Johnson.” The following day, the former prime minister travelled to the city of Lviv, with footage capturing Harborne standing nearby at one of the receptions, according to the article.
An itinerary leaked by the US-based transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) featured a “closed meeting at the military-tech R&D center” during Johnson’s visit there. The Guardian pointed out that, while it was unclear whether Harborne attended, the donor is known to hold a significant stake in QinetiQ, a British military research company. Kiev’s forces have reportedly used its drones and bomb-disposal robots.
Responding to a request for comment, Johnson lashed out at the newspaper, insisting that its “pathetic non-stories … seem mostly to be derived from some illegal Russian hack job.” The former prime minister accused the media outlet of “doing Putin’s work.”
According to former Ukrainian head negotiator David Arakhamia, Johnson torpedoed the first peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul in March 2022, urging Kiev to abandon the negotiations and fight on – an allegation the ex-UK prime minister has strongly denied.
