In the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly threatened former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a missile strike.
In an interview with the BBC for a documentary, Johnson claimed that the Russian president had enquired about the likelihood of Ukraine joining NATO and that Johnson had informed him that it would not happen for the foreseeable future.
He once threatened me and said, Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but it would just take a minute with a missile, or something of that effect. Johnson recalled the extremely long and very remarkable conversation as jolly. call made in February 2022 following a trip to Kyiv by the then-prime minister.
But I believe that, given his extremely laid-back demeanor and his apparent air of detachment, he was merely cooperating with my efforts to persuade him to engage in negotiation.
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury had brought relations between Moscow and London to their lowest point in decades.
Johnson, who quit in September following a slew of scandals, aimed to make London Kyiv’s primary Western ally. He made multiple trips to Kyiv while in office and spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, frequently.
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