(Refiling to fix quote to make it “its jaws” instead of “your jaws” in 3rd paragraph)
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris compared negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin to dealing with a crocodile as he warned Ukraine it will be hard to negotiate a peace deal with a leader who is so unreliable.
Johnson said Putin has made it clear that he wants to take more Ukrainian territory and could launch another assault on the country’s capital Kyiv.
“How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it has your leg in its jaws, that is the difficulty that Ukrainians face,” Johnson told reporters on a plane to India for a two-day visit.
“It is very hard to see how the Ukrainians can negotiate with Putin now given his manifest lack of good faith.”
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Editing by Kylie MacLellan, Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)
