Ukraine’s former President has hit out at Boris Johnson for comparing Brexit to his country’s struggle against the Russian invasion.

In his speech to the Tory spring conference on Saturday, the UK Prime Minister said British and Ukrainian people had the same instinct to ‘choose freedom, every time” and pointed to Brexit as a “famous recent example”.

Speaking to ITV News from Kyiv yesterday evening, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took exception to the comparison.

“How many citizens of United Kingdom died because of Brexit? Zero. Can you imagine how many Ukrainians died before they met Putin aggression? Thousands,” he said.

“Only today we have more than 150 children which were killed by Russian soldiers and by Russian artillery. Only during the last week, 2,000 children, only from Mariupol, were captured and delivered back to Russia.

“Can I ask you how many houses were destroyed because of Brexit? We have whole cities that have been completely erased.

“Starting from Mariupol – which is much worse than Aleppo. Just 7km, 8km from me here we have Bucha, Gostomel. We have Irpin; we have the city of Kyiv with destroyed houses. With this situation definitely - please - no comparison.”

Mr Johnson’s weekend comments attracted swift criticism from politicians in the UK and Europe over the weekend.

Former European Council President Donald Tusk labelled them offensive, while the European Parliaments former Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said they were “insane”.

The UK Labour Party’s shadow chancellor said the remarks were “utterly distasteful and insulting” and called on Mr Johnson to retract them.