The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom blamed the conflict in Ukraine on Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s self-image.
While speaking with a German news outlet, Boris Johnson theorized that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if its president was a woman.
“If Putin was a woman, which he obviously isn’t, but if he were, I really don’t think he would’ve embarked on a crazy, macho war of invasion and violence in the way that he has,” Johnson told ZDF. “If you want a perfect example of toxic masculinity, it’s what he’s doing in Ukraine.”
He added that the war exemplified why “you need more women in positions of power.”
Johnson attended the NATO Summit in Madrid early this week and discussed the ongoing conflict with other world leaders, per GBN.
He said during the interview that the those involved in the summit “want the war to end desperately but there is no deal available.”
“Putin isn’t making an offer of a deal, [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy can’t make an offer of a deal,” Johnson added, noting the necessity of the West’s support of Kyiv.
“We really do want to give the Ukrainians strategic endurance,” the British Prime Minister added.
While posing for a photo with other attendees at the event, Johnson mocked photos of Putin in 2009 riding a horse while shirtless, per Newsweek.
“Jackets on? Jackets off? Shall we take our clothes off?” Johnson said to the international leaders. “We all have to show that we’re tougher than Putin.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replied, “We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display.”
“Oh yes,” European Union President Ursula von der Leyen added. “Horseback riding at its best.”
Johnson’s criticism of Putin has been denounced by some as somewhat hypocritical as he has been accused of making sexist remarks in the past.
“It’s hard to take Johnson’s ‘toxic masculinity’ remarks as anything other than virtue signaling when you consider some of the ‘jokes’ he’s made publicly in the past, like how voting Tory can cause your wife to have bigger breasts,’” reports the Independent. “Or when he admired professional volleyball players, describing them as ‘semi-naked’ and ‘glistening like wet otters.’”
The United Kingdom’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace echoed Johnson’s sentiment while appearing on a national news program on June 29.
“I certainly think Putin’s view of himself and the world is a small man syndrome, macho view,” Wallace said during an appearance on radio station LBC. “You rarely hear the phrase small woman syndrome. You always hear small man syndrome and he’s got it in spades.”
“I think the real challenge here is the Russian system’s views that somehow some states are lesser than others and their rights do not count. If they want to paint themselves into a new history, they seem to think the way to do that is through violence and invasion, and I think that is something I worry about,” he added.
Wallace said that he believes Ukraine is winning the current conflict and “extracting a huge amount of cost from the Russian forces.”
