- James Landale e William McLennan
- BBC News
Credit, Getty Images
Johnson said Putin adopted a ‘very relaxed tone’ and an ‘air of detachment’ during the call
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to hit him with a missile during an “extraordinary” phone call shortly before the invasion of Ukraine.
According to Johnson, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, Putin stated that “it would only take a minute”.
The comment was reportedly made after the then British prime minister warned that the war would be a “total catastrophe” during a “very long” phone call in February 2022.
Details of the conversation are revealed in the BBC documentary Putin vs the West, which looks at the Russian president’s interactions with world leaders.
Johnson reportedly warned Putin that invading Ukraine would lead to Western sanctions and more North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops on Russia’s borders.
He is also said to have tried to deter Russian military action by telling Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO “in the near future”.
However, as Johnson reported: “He threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile it would only take a minute’ or so.”
“But I think from the very relaxed tone he was adopting, the kind of detachment he seemed to have, he was just playing with my attempts to convince him to negotiate.”
According to Johnson, Putin had been “very friendly” during the “most extraordinary phone call”.
No reference to the dialogue appeared in the records of the call made by Downing Street and the Kremlin. It is impossible to know whether Putin’s threat was genuine.
However, given previous Russian attacks on the UK — most recently in Salisbury in 2018 — Johnson likely would have had no choice but to take any threat from the Russian leader seriously, however lightly.
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Boris Johnson received a call from Putin the day after meeting Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev
Nine days later, on February 11, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace flew to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
The BBC documentary reveals that Wallace left with assurances that Russia would not invade Ukraine, but said both sides knew this was a lie.
He described it as a “show of intimidation or force, like 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”.
“I think it was about saying, ‘I’m powerful,'” Wallace declared.
He said the “pretty scary but straightforward lie” had confirmed his belief that Russia would invade Ukraine.
As he left the meeting, he recounts that General Valery Gerasimov—Russia’s chief of staff—told him: “We will never again be humiliated.”
Less than a fortnight later, when the tanks crossed the border on February 24, Johnson received a call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the middle of the night.
“Zelensky is very, very calm,” says Johnson. “But, he tells me, you know, they’re attacking everywhere.”
The then-British premier says he offered to help get Zelensky to safety. “He didn’t accept that offer. He heroically stayed where he was.”
The documentary “Putin Vs the West” will be broadcast on Monday (30/01) no channel BBC Two at 9pm and will be available on iPlayer in the UK.