Boris Johnson says Putin claimed he could send missile to hit UK ‘in a minute’

Boris Johnson, on a visit to Kyiv last week, called Vladimir Putin last year to try to talk him down from invading Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Off/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

Boris Johnson has said that Vladimir Putin claimed he could have sent a missile to hit Britain “within a minute”, in a call just before the invasion of Ukraine.

The former prime minister’s comments came in a three-part documentary for BBC Two looking at the conflict in Ukraine and the lead up to Russia’s invasion in February last year.