Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Kyiv, Sunday, January 22, 2023 AP
Boris Johnson reveals how Vladimir Putin “kind of threatened” him before invading Ukraine in a BBC documentary aired on Monday January 30. The former British Prime Minister returns to his telephone conversation with the Russian President in February 2022 when he returned from a surprise visit to Kyiv in this three-part film.
Mr Putin then continued to claim that despite the massive influx of Russian soldiers into the border regions, he had no intention of invading his neighbour. Mr Johnson explains that he warned him about the harsh sanctions Westerners would impose if he went down this route.
“He said to me: Boris, you say that Ukraine will not join NATO any time soon. What do you mean not soon? ‘ says the former head of the British government. “Well, they won’t be joining NATO anytime soon, you know that for a fact,” continues the former British leader, an early supporter of the Ukrainians.
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“A rocket would take a minute”
“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,'” Mr Johnson continued.
“I think that because of his very relaxed tone and the detachment he seemed to have, he toyed with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” he adds.
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On Sunday January 22, more than four months after leaving Downing Street, the former British Prime Minister had reappeared in Ukrainian lands, to everyone’s surprise. After visiting the towns of Borodianka and Boutcha, which had been severely affected by the fighting, he drove towards Kyiv, where Volodymyr Zelenskyy was waiting for him.
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In the documentary, the Ukrainian president describes how he got angry at the attitude of Westerners at the time: “If you know that Russia will invade Ukraine tomorrow, why not give me today what I can do about it? If you can’t, stop doing it yourself. »