Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recounts in a BBC documentary that before invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin “somewhat threatened” him, telling him “a missile would last a minute”.
In the threepart documentary, the first episode of which can be seen on BBC Two on Monday evening (30th), the former British Prime Minister tells of the “very long” and “extraordinary” phone call with the Russian President after visiting Russia in Kyiv in early February last year.
Putin went on to say at the time that despite the massive influx of Russian troops into the border regions, he had no intention of invading neighboring Ukraine. Johnson claims to have warned the Russian president about the severe sanctions the West would impose if he did.
Then the former British Prime Minister claimed that Putin told him: “Boris, you say Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon. […] What do you mean ‘so soon’?”
“Anyone who doesn’t join NATO in the near future knows that very well,” said Johnson, who has supported the Ukrainians since the beginning of the conflict. “At one point he kind of threatened me and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a rocket it would take a minute,’ or something like that,” Johnson added.
“I think that given the prevailing relaxed tone and the distance he seemed to have, he disregarded my attempts to get him to negotiate,” added the former Prime Minister, who left Downing Street in early September after a had series of scandals.
In the documentary, Ukrainian President Volodmir Zelenskyy said he was uncomfortable with the attitude of Westerners at the time.
“If you know that Russia will invade Ukraine tomorrow, why not offer me today what I need to stop it?” If you can’t, stop it yourself,” he said.
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