Boris Johnson training with Ukrainian troops is one of the most absurd things you'll see today

Outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson’s “very close relationship” with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – and the photo opps which come out of his visits to the war-torn country – have become a meme amid allegations they were to “distract us” from all the scandals which struck his government.

Now, we’ve been provided with another meme: Mr Johnson taking part in military training with Ukrainian troops in North Yorkshire.

The British Armed Forces have been offering support to soldiers before going to fight in Ukraine, with the UK government hoping to see 10,000 citizens trained over the next four months.

“I’ve been meeting some of the 400 Ukrainian troops who are here being trained by our forces getting ready to go and fight in Ukraine – that’s part of a huge commitment we’ve made to train Ukrainian forces,” said Mr Johnson, in a video uploaded to Downing Street’s social media channels on Saturday.

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The footage, just over two minutes in length, sees the PM crouch behind soldiers as they prepare to storm a building, and even lob a hand grenade - much like he did to his own party earlier this month, you might say…

And the jokes just wrote themselves:

The video was shared a day after Mr Johnson had a telephone conversation with Mr Zelensky, in which he mentioned the training of Ukrainian troops in the UK.

The Ukrainian president saying the support was making “a real difference” in the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion of the country which began earlier this year.

And Mr Johnson isn’t the only politician to witness the military training in action, after Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Volodymyr Havrylov travelled to Scotland last week to see his country’s soldiers being trained there.

“I saw the brotherhood of Ukrainian and British soldiers working together to achieve a common goal - strengthening the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian army.

We are very grateful to the government and people of the United Kingdom for their invaluable contribution to Ukraine’s success in repelling the Russian aggressors,” Mr Havrylov said of his visit.

Somehow we feel as though the Ukrainian minister was a lot more dignified during his time with the troops, but that’s easy to do when you’re comparing them to Boris Johnson…

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