Boris Johnson says Putin said he could send a missile to the UK "in a minute"

MADRID, 30 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him during a call just before the invasion of Ukraine that he could send a missile to the UK "in a minute".

"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 something like that. But I think from the very relaxed tone he was taking, the kind of nonchalant air he seemed to have, he was just playing with my attempts to get him to negotiate," he explained.

Johnson, who has shown his continued support for Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, has made these comments in a BBC Two documentary looking at the Ukraine conflict and the run-up to the Russian invasion, which began on February 24, 2022.

Then the former UK prime minister warned Putin in early February of Western sanctions on Kremlin-linked individuals and companies, telling him the war would be a "total catastrophe."

Johnson's aim was to dissuade the Russian president from Russian military action, telling him that kyiv would not join NATO "in the foreseeable future".