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In the context of a documentary that will be broadcast by British Radio, starting Monday, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recounted the details of a “long” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he “threatened” him “in some way” before the start of the war on Ukraine. According to Johnson, Putin told him, “With a missile, it will take a minute,” while the Russian president stressed at the time that he would not invade Ukraine.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed in a BBC documentary that Russian President Vladimir Putin “threatened him in some way” before the outbreak. The war on Ukraine “With a missile, it will take one minute,” he told him.
The three-part documentary, which the BBC broadcasts its first episodes on Monday evening, includes details of Johnson’s “very long” and “extraordinary” call with the Russian President after his visit to Kyiv at the beginning of last February.
During this period, Putin continued to stress that he had no intention of invading Ukraine, despite the massive build-up of Russian soldiers in the border regions. Johnson says he warned Putin of harsh penalties that Westerners might impose if he did so.
Johnson explains that Putin “said: ‘Boris, you’re saying that Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon (…) What do you mean by ‘any time soon?'”
The former British Prime Minister replied, “Well, you are not going to join NATO in the near future. You know that very well.”
“At one point he kind of threatened me and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it’ll take a minute’ or something like that,” Johnson added. However, the Kremlin denied these accusations, considering them “lies”.
“What Mr. Johnson said is not true. More precisely, he lied,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“More than that, it is either a knowing lie, and therefore Mr Johnson must be questioned as to his purpose in choosing this version of events, or inadvertently and he actually did not understand what Mr Putin was saying about him.”
The documentary chronicles the growing divide between the Russian leader and the West in the years leading up to the invasion of Ukraine.
Also in this documentary, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells how he was angry at the position of Westerners at the time, and says, “If you know that Russia will invade Ukraine tomorrow, why don’t you give me something I can stop it with today? Or if you can’t give it to me, stop it.” If yourselves.”
France 24/AFP
