Underground to overground, bobbling free: Ex-PM Boris Johnson swaps his London Tube beanie for Ukrainian Railways upgrade on visit to chilly Kyiv
- Ex-PM has been sporting a new hat in vivid colours in recent days after Kyiv visit
- Head of the Ukrainian Railway has revealed it was a gift from state operator
- Alexander Kamyshin joked Johnson was now ‘the most stylish man in London’
He’s known for his somewhat unique approach to fashion. But Boris Johnson extended his support for Ukraine to matters sartorial after a visit to Kiev last week.
The former prime minister, who often excites comment for his dishevelled appearance, has been sporting a new hat in vivid colours in recent days.
And now the head of the Ukrainian Railway has revealed it was a gift that he swapped for his usual tatty London Underground beanie.
In a series of tweets the state-run operator ‘s chief executive Alexander Kamyshin revealed Mr Johnson popped in before catching a train during a trip to the capital to see President Zelensky.
He joked that the new beanie, with a bright yellow bobble and writing saying ‘carriage numbering starts from the head of the train’, had made the former PM ‘ the most stylish man in London’.
The former prime minister, who often excites comment for his dishevelled appearance, has been sporting a new hat in the colours of the war-torn country in recent days.
Mr Johnson next to a heavily damaged residential building adorned with the work of world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy in the town of Borodianka, outside of Kyiv, last weekend
He wrote: ‘The story starts in Irpin, where Boris Johnson was during his recent visit to Ukraine. Look how grumpy he was. And I thought that the reason could be in his hat. That’s a London Underground hat, btw.
‘So when Boris visited our station shop, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi asked Boris Johnson whether he’d like to try a different hat. A proper one. Ukrainian Railways hat.
‘We found a better hat for him then. And Oleksandr offered to change the hats right away. But Boris was not sure at the moment, as you see. So we simply presented him (with) a proper hat.
‘But later on the train Boris tried our hat and understood it’s a decent one. So he presented his old hat to Ukrainian Railways. So Boris left our train in a proper hat.
‘And his old London Underground hat got back to Ukrainian Railways. And now Boris Johnson is the most stylish man in London. Meanwhile British media are wondering where he got such a cool hat.’
Downing Street this week insisted Britain is still ‘leading the way’ in providing support to Ukraine after Mr Johnson’s plea for a greater supply of Western military kit.
The former prime minister, fresh from his surprise visit to Kyiv at the weekend, implored the US and European nations to heed Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky’s call for more tanks.
Mr Johnson, writing in the Daily Mail, asked ‘just what the hell are we waiting for?’ as he queried why not more of the West’s ‘abundance’ of arms was being used to take on Russian forces.
In a swipe at Washington DC, Berlin and London, the ex-premier questioned whether Western tanks currently needed to be ‘guarding North Rhine-Westphalia’, ‘protecting Tennessee’, or ‘prowling the villages of Wiltshire’.
In response to the former PM’s remarks today, Downing Street highlighted Britain’s recent commitment to send a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine and suggested Rishi Sunak would like to see other countries follow suit.
But No10 insisted it would not ‘dictate’ to other nations on what they should be doing to support Kyiv amid growing international pressure on Germany to send its Leopard 2 tanks.
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