Former UK Prime Minister and ardent supporter of Ukraine, Boris Johnson, has commented on POTUS Donald Trump’s attitude toward Ukraine.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle in Kyiv, he noted that he disagrees with the statements made by Trump. Including his claim that Ukraine started the war and that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a dictator.

“I think he hears a lot of nonsense about the war from some of his people that he takes seriously, but I also think that he’s trying to negotiate,” adding that Trump was likely “frustrated by the lack of progress with a mineral agreement with Ukraine.”

He clarified that he believes that the agreement is very good for Ukraine as the “deal commits the United States to a free and sovereign Ukraine. It commits the United States to continue financing Ukraine, and it commits the United States to a long-term economic partnership with Ukraine.”

He also said that the average American taxpayer is paying far more than the average European taxpayer for the war as there are fewer people living in the US than in Europe, and that there was no real talk of Ukraine becoming a NATO member state.

“If you want America to take us seriously, then we must take ourselves seriously. If you want America to take Ukraine seriously and to care about Ukraine, we must show that we care about Ukraine,” he said.

In another speech, he qualified the rare minerals deal as “extortion” while also saying, “But remember our Lend-Lease. We were simply swindled, our military bases were taken away, and we paid for this assistance until 2006.”