Putin threatened to kill me with a missile — Boris Johnson

The apparent threat — denied by the Kremlin — came in a phone call just before the February 24 invasion, according to a BBC documentary airing Monday.

Johnson and other Western leaders rushed to Kiev to show support for Ukraine and deter a Russian attack.

“He threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile it only takes a minute,’ or something like that,” Johnson quoted Putin as saying.

However, the Kremlin dismissed the accusation as a “lie” on Monday.

“What Mr. Johnson said is not true. In fact, it’s a lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“Moreover, this is either a deliberate lie – then you have to ask Mr. Johnson for what purpose he chose this version of events – or it was unintentional and he did not, in fact, understand what President Putin was talking to him about.”

Johnson emerged as one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s most passionate Western backers.

– ‘Play along’ –

But prior to the invasion, he said he told Putin there was no immediate prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, warning him that any invasion would mean “more NATO, not less NATO” on Russia’s borders.

“He said, ‘Boris, you say that Ukraine will not join NATO any time soon.

“‘What time is it?’ And I said, ‘Well, it won’t be joining NATO in the foreseeable future. You know that very well.’

On the missile threat, Johnson added: “I think from the very relaxed tone he took, the kind of aloofness he seemed to have, he just played along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”

The BBC documentary charts the growing rift between the Russian leader and the West in the years before the invasion of Ukraine.

It also features Zelensky reflecting on his thwarted ambitions to join NATO prior to Russia’s attack.

“If you know that Russia will occupy Ukraine tomorrow, why don’t you give me something today to stop it?” he says.

“Or if you can’t give it to me, stop it yourself.”

AFP