The Guardian never published any report alleging that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson encouraged Kyiv to prolong the war with Russia in exchange for a «bribe.» The claim was entirely fabricated by Russian propaganda outlets, which falsely cited the newspaper to lend their disinformation an air of legitimacy.
Kremlin-linked outlets and social media accounts are circulating claims that Boris Johnson supposedly lobbied to prolong the war in Ukraine in exchange for money. According to these reports, The Guardian allegedly reached this conclusion in a so-called «investigation.»
«The Western press has uncovered who’s behind the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. According to The Guardian, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lobbied to prolong the war for a bribe — allegedly receiving one million pounds to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to keep fighting,» Russia’s Channel Five claimed.
After the claim began circulating, StopFake examined whether The Guardian had in fact published such conclusions. The result was clear: it had not.
Before the fabricated claim emerged, The Guardian had indeed published an investigation mentioning Boris Johnson. The report examined his ties to businessman Christopher Harborne — a shareholder in a British defense company who donated £1 million to Johnson. Journalists focused on the fact that in 2023, Johnson brought Harborne with him on a visit to Ukraine for high-level meetings. The piece explored whether the donation and the joint trip could raise questions of a potential conflict of interest.
However, The Guardian made no assertions about Johnson’s motives for including Harborne on the trip. The article focused instead on questions of transparency and ethics surrounding the donation, noting only that the relationship might carry a commercial dimension. At no point did it claim — or even imply — that Johnson received £1 million to persuade Kyiv to prolong the war with Russia. Those allegations were entirely fabricated by Russian propagandists and falsely attributed to The Guardian to lend the narrative a veneer of legitimacy.
StopFake had earlier refuted similar fabrications suggesting that Boris Johnson had «grown tired of Ukraine» — another narrative pushed by Russian propaganda to depict Western allies as weary of supporting Kyiv.
