Johnson keen to show international statesmanship
This is a very public show of support to the country caught in the crosshairs between Russia and the West.
Taking a break from his fight for political survival at home, Boris Johnson is keen to show international statesmanship, banking on a warm welcome in chilly Kyiv.
The British government says it’s trained more than 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers and is one of the leading donors of “lethal aid".
Boris Johnson has gone with promises of more support, as the West tries to resolve the crisis by ratcheting up the pressure on Russia.
This involves deterrence - military and economic - and diplomacy.
The prime minister’s spokesman said Johnson was “spearheading the international response".
He’s now due to speak to President Putin tomorrow after the publication of a report on lockdown parties at Downing Street forced a postponement of his call yesterday.
But it’s what Washington says, not London, that really matters to the Kremlin.
Nato - the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - is the world's most powerful regional defence alliance and its members see an attack on any of them as an attack on all of them.
It was formed in 1949 to counter the threat of post-war communist expansion as the Soviet Union sought to extend its influence in Europe after World War Two.
It originally consisted of 12 founding members - including the UK - and it now has 30, including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - former Soviet republics which border Russia.
Ukraine is not a Nato member, but it is a "partner country" - this means there is an understanding that it may be allowed to join the alliance sometime in the future.
Russia wants assurances from Western powers that this will never happen.
But the US is refusing to bar Ukraine from Nato, saying that as a sovereign nation it should be free to decide on its own security alliances.
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