‘With a missile, it would only take a minute’ Boris Johnson reveals he got threats from Putin | CPT PPP Coverage

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made some chilling revelations in a latest BBC Documentary, Putin vs the West, where he claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened him with a missile strike ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. 

The threat from Putin came in a very long call with Johnson in February when Russia was amassing tens of thousands of its troops along Ukraine’s borders and world leaders were trying to find a common ground to dissuade any attempt by Moscow to invade Ukraine. 

In the latest documentary which is set to be broadcasted on BBC 2 on 30 January, Johnson said, “He threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that…” 

However, the then PM added, “I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.” One thing is for sure. No one will ever find out if Putin genuinely meant what he said during the “most extraordinary call.”

The latest documentary shed a light on Putin’s conversations with world leaders. It covers everything from the Crimea invasion in 2014 to the invasion of Ukraine. As for Johnson, he warned Putin of sanctions and in a bid to avoid any conflict clarified to the Russian President that Ukraine will not join the NATO trans-Atlantic alliance  “for the foreseeable future”.

Johnson’s could have apprehensions over Putin’s bold missile attack remarks, courtesy to the earlier poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal. UK blamed Russia for poisoning the duo in the city of Salisbury, England on 4 March 2018. 

The documentary also revealed that UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu where he gained assurance of no invasion. However, Wallace described it as a “demonstration of bullying or strength, which is: I’m going to lie to you, you know I’m lying and I know you know I’m lying and I’m still going to lie to you.”

About 15 days after, tanks rolled and Zelensky called Johnson saying, “they’re attacking everywhere.” Johnson offered Zelenskyy to help him in moving the president to safety. Former UK PM recalled, “He doesn’t take me up on that offer. He heroically stayed where he was.”

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