Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him, in a phone call before Russia’s war on Ukraine, “I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile it only takes a minute.”
The British “BA Media” agency quoted Johnson as saying that the “unusual” conversation took place last February after he visited Kyiv in a last-ditch attempt to show Western support to Ukraine amid growing fears of a Russian attack.
Johnson, who emerged as a staunch supporter of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration in the months after the Russia war, echoed that claim in a new three-part BBC documentary series looking at how the West wrestled with Putin in the years leading up to the war in Russia. Ukraine.
The former prime minister, who was forced out as British prime minister last September, visited Kyiv in early February to warn Russia that war with Ukraine would be disastrous.
Johnson said he had warned Putin that there would be tougher Western sanctions if he ordered war on Ukraine.
He also said he had told the Russian leader that the escalation would only increase Western countries’ support for Ukraine, which would mean “more NATO presence, not less presence” on Russia’s borders.
He continued that Putin said to him during the call, “Boris, you say that Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon… What do you mean anytime soon?” I said, “Well, it will not join NATO in the foreseeable future.” You know that very well.”
“He kind of threatened me, he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile it only takes a minute, or something like that,'” Johnson added.
