Johnson told a lie over Putin’s missile death threat, says Kremlin

THE Kremlin yesterday suggested Boris Johnson told a lie when he said Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to threaten him with a missile strike.

The former Prime Minister made the claim in a new three-part series for BBC Two looking at how the West grappled with Putin in the years leading up to the war in Ukraine.

Mr Johnson, talking about a phone call between the two leaders before Moscow’s invasion, said: “He sort of threatened me at one point and said: ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that.”

But the Kremlin disputed the claim, saying there were “no threats with missiles” during the conversation in February 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the former politician’s account was untrue – “or more precisely it was a lie”.

Mr Peskov said the former Conservative Party leader may have deliberately lied or failed to understand what the Russian leader was telling him.

“There were no threats with missiles,” Mr Peskov said during a conference call with reporters.

“While talking about security challenges to Russia, President Putin said that if Ukraine joins Nato the potential deployment of US or other Nato missiles near our borders would mean that any such missile could reach Moscow in minutes.”

Mr Johnson told the documentary producers that the “extraordinary” conversation took place last February after he had visited Kyiv in a last-ditch attempt to show Western support for Ukraine amid growing fears of a Russian assault.

War would break out only days later, with Russia launching its attack on Kyiv on February 24.

Mr Johnson said Putin had a “very relaxed tone” and an “air of detachment” as he spoke.

“He was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” Mr Johnson said.

The former prime minister, who left Downing Street in September after being forced from office following a series of controversies, made the visit to Kyiv in early February to warn Russia that an invasion would prove disastrous.

During his contribution to the documentary, Mr Johnson recalled that he warned Putin there would be tougher Western sanctions if he ordered an invasion of Ukraine.