The former PM spends 72 hours on Ukraine’s front line
Year: 2026
Certificate: 15
Boris Johnson standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv is one of the defining images of his premiership. Now, this powerful documentary follows the former PM as he returns to Ukraine, this time reverting to his former career as a journalist, embedded with battle-hardened men to undertake an under-the-radar 72-hour journey to the front line.
Johnson wants to bring the world’s attention to the realities of the barbaric warfare that Putin has chosen to unleash on the people of Ukraine, and to find out for himself whether the Russian leader’s cruelty has a chance of succeeding in accomplishing his aims. And to do so, he is risking his life – he’s a little disconcerted to learn from his escorts (among them his Daily Mail colleague, war correspondent Richard Pendlebury), that he will be putting himself at substantial risk if he wears the reporter’s blue helmet as the Russians actively target journalists.
On entering the ‘kill zone’ near the besieged city of Zaporizhzhia, among obliterated villages and abandoned homes, he meets the infantrymen holding the line in the trenches, elite drone operators in their top-secret bases, and workers in a makeshift bomb factory. He learns, too, of the devastating personal cost of this illegal, treaty-breaking conflict to the Ukrainian fighters themselves and to their families.
This is a riveting and important film, and one that Johnson hopes will highlight the heroism of the Ukrainians, and encourage the West to act on their desperate need for continued support. It’s also the first programme from Daily Mail Originals – in association with Soho Studios – which takes the Daily Mail’s brilliant content and turns it into compelling TV and film. A full-length version, 100 per cent raw and uncut, will also be available on the Daily Mail app and Daily Mail World YouTube channel. (68 minutes)
