Putin Threatened Boris Johnson With A Missile Attack During The Ukraine Conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Boris Johnson with a missile attack in a "extraordinary" phone chat before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It "would just take a minute," the former prime minister said Mr. Putin had assured him.
Mr. Johnson said the remark came after he called the war a "utter tragedy." A BBC documentary on Vladimir Putin's meetings with foreign leaders throughout the years makes this assertion. A spokesperson for the Kremlin called it a "lie."
“„He threatened me at one point, and he said, Boris, I don't want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute' or something like that. Jolly. But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.
- Boris Johnson
Mr. Johnson said that President Putin had been extremely familiar during the most unusual call. Downing Street's media briefing on the call made no mention of the conversation. However, comprehensive minutes of all official phone conversations are always collected by a Number 10 official and kept for the archive.
Former UK PM Boris Johnson Says Putin Threatened Him With Missile Strike | Russia Ukraine War
COPYRIGHT_SZ: Published on https://stationzilla.com/putin-threatened-boris-johnson-with-a-missile-attack/ by Dr. Cooney Blades on 2023-01-31T06:25:44.178Z
Russia Response
Mr. Putin may or may not have been serious about his threat. However, given the history of Russian assaults on the United Kingdom (the most recent being in Salisbury in 2018), Mr. Johnson likely would have been compelled to take any threat from the Russian leader seriously, no matter how casually it was delivered.
Boris Johnson spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, and the next day, President Putin called him. Replying to the former prime minister's remark, Mr. Putin's spokesperson said it was "either a purposeful fabrication, in which case you should inquire as to Mr. Johnson's motivations for lying, or an accident. In other words, he was completely lost as to what President Putin was saying to him".
“„There were no threats to use missiles.
- Dmitry Peskov
He said that the Russian leader had only pointed out that any missile might reach Moscow in a matter of minutes if Ukraine joined NATO and NATO or the United States deployed missiles near Russia's border.
Since the invasion, President Putin has repeatedly cautioned other nations not to intervene lest they face a swift and devastating reaction from Russia, including the possible use of nuclear weapons.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace met his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on the 11th of February, only nine days after Mr. Johnson spoke with President Putin.
Putin Vs The West
This is the inside tale of a decade of conflicts, as related by the Western leaders who exchanged punches with Putin's Russia, from the 2014 takeover of Crimea to the invasion of Ukraine.
The video claims that in late February, U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace visited Moscow and was assured by his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu that Russia would not invade Ukraine.
Russia's chief of general staff and current commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, privately warned Wallace that Russia "never again will be humiliated," which contributed to Wallace's skepticism.
On November 2, 2021, CIA director William Burns flew in Moscow, marking another crucial meeting in the months preceding up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Burns circled the Russian city for hours due to thick fog that precluded landing, only to arrive to the Kremlin and find that Mr. Putin was not there. Instead, he took refuge in Sochi, a city in southern Russia, while the number of Covid cases rose.
They had a phone conversation.
The CIA director said he was forthright in conveying President Biden's message: the United States was aware of Mr. Putin's plans and that he would pay a steep price for any invasion.
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not deny that preparations were being made and instead recited a laundry list of complaints about Ukraine and the West.
Final Words
After warning Putin that invading Ukraine would lead to Western sanctions and an increase in NATO forces on Russia's borders, Johnson reportedly had a "very lengthy" and "unusual" chat with the Russian president, during which Putin made his remark, according to the former British prime minister.
Johnson also sought to dissuade Putin from an all-out invasion by reminding him that Ukraine would not join the transatlantic military alliance "for the foreseeable future."
