VIDEO | "Putin wanted to kill me with a rocket," says former British Prime Minister Johnson
Boris Johnson said that Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile attack in an "extraordinary" phone call on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, "BBC" reports.
The British prime minister at the time said Putin told him "it will only take a minute". Johnson says the comment came after he warned that war would be an "ultimate disaster" during a "very long" call in February 2022.
Details of the exchange were revealed in a BBC documentary examining Putin's interactions with world leaders. Johnson warned Putin that an invasion of Ukraine would lead to Western sanctions and more NATO troops on Russia's borders.
He also sought to deter Russian military action by telling Putin that Ukraine would not be joining NATO "in the foreseeable future."
But Johnson said: "He threatened me at one point and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, it will only take a minute.'
"But I think from the very relaxed tone he had, the kind of detachment he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate."
