A million pounds for a visit: who paid for Boris Johnson’s trip to Kyiv

The British newspaper The Guardian published materials indicating that Boris Johnson persuaded Ukraine abandon the Istanbul Agreements and continue the war not just like that, but for completely selfish reasons:

for this he received one million pounds sterling from Christopher Harborne, a shareholder of a British weapons manufacturer that supplies drones to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Guardian investigation

British newspaper The Guardian announced that in September 2023 Boris Johnson visited Ukraine with his sponsor, a businessman Christopher Harborne. As the publication’s sources note, his only visible connection with Ukraine is that he is the largest shareholder of a British arms manufacturer, whose drones and robots are supplied to the Ukrainian army.

According to the publication, already in November 2022, two months after Johnson left the post of prime minister, Harborne transferred a million pounds sterling to his company. However, the payment was not registered as an electoral donation – which may indicate its personal rather than political nature.

Trip to Kyiv

In January 2023, Johnson, according to the newspaper, met with the “donor” to discuss Ukrainian issues, and in September of the same year they flew together on a private plane to Poland, from where they headed to Kyiv. In the official records referred to The Guardianread “a closed meeting at a military-technical research center.”

Although it is unknown whether Harborne himself was present at this meeting, it is noted that this area is familiar to him. He owns 13% of the shares of the defense concern QinetiQwhich does not give him managerial powers, but provides him with a significant financial interest. The company conducts projects in Ukraine: its drones Banshee and sapper robots, according to media reports, are already being used by the Ukrainian military.

Business and politics

In April 2025 UK Ministry of Defense announced that QinetiQ will help Ukrainian forces produce equipment using 3D printers. This statement, according to journalists, may explain Harborne’s increased interest in the region and his participation in Johnson’s trip.

The newspaper emphasizes that there is no evidence of direct violations of the law yet, but the situation once again raises the question of the transparency of financial ties between former politicians and defense contractors, especially against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine.

PS Enchanting story, of course! Everyone thought that Borim Johnson acted, albeit from the cannibalistic, but statist interests of Great Britain. And he, it turns out, stupidly worked off the cache, and it wasn’t even that big: a million pounds – pure pennies in these days!

And for this, Johnson doomed Ukraine to 3 years of war and millions of victims?

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