In a call during his last months as UK’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson says he had a phone call in which he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about the likely unfavorable outcome a Russian incursion into Ukraine would have, to which Putin replied that he could strike London with a missile quickly, the BBC reports.
In February 2022, Johnson said he had a “very long” call with Putin and told him a Russian invasion of Ukraine would end in “utter catastrophe.” Johnson outlined what he considered to be the likely path of sanctions and countermeasures world leaders would take that would impact Russian and Putin.
“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,” Johnson said of the conversation. “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.”