Boris Johnson has claimed that Vladimir Putin told him “I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute”, in a call ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The former prime minister said the “extraordinary” conversation took place in February after he had visited Kyiv in a last-ditch attempt to show Western support for Ukraine amid growing fears of a Russian assault.
Mr Johnson, who would emerge as a vocal backer of Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration in the months after Russia invaded, made the claim in a new three-part series for BBC Two looking at how the West grappled with Mr Putin in the years leading up to the war in Ukraine. The former PM, who left Downing Street in September after being forced from office, made the visit to Kyiv in early February to warn Russia that an invasion would prove disastrous.
