In a phone call before the invasion of Ukraine, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to launch a missile strike on him. Johnson was the Prime Minister at the time of the call and says that Putin made the threat after he warned the war would be an “utter catastrophe”. Johnson tried to discourage Russian military action by telling Putin that Ukraine would not be joining NATO for the foreseeable future, but the Russian leader allegedly threatened him with a missile strike that would only take a minute. Putin’s spokesman dismissed the claim as a lie and said there were no threats to use missiles, only that Putin pointed out that if Ukraine joined NATO, missiles could reach Moscow within minutes.
In the run-up to the invasion, the UK’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also met with his Russian counterpart in Moscow and left with assurances that Russia would not invade Ukraine, but he says it was a lie and a demonstration of bullying or strength. The CIA director William Burns also spoke with Putin before the invasion and warned that the US would take action if he launched such an invasion, but Putin did not deny planning was underway. After the invasion, Prime Minister Johnson received a middle-of-the-night call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and offered to help move him to safety, but Zelensky stayed where he was.
