Johnson: Putin Was Scared By Missiles Flying Towards Moscow

• 4.10.2024, 11:34

The head of the Kremlin constantly returned to this topic.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that during his attempts to persuade Vladimir Putin not to attack Ukraine, the Russian president threatened a nuclear strike. The British politician talks about this in his memoirs Unleashed, The Times reports.

Johnson noted that Putin expressed serious concerns about possible NATO missiles on Ukrainian territory, although in fact no one proposed deploying them there. According to him, the Kremlin leader constantly returned to this topic and stressed that it “would hardly take long” for a missile launched from Ukraine to reach Moscow.

“At one point, he (Putin — edit.) made some creepy-joking remark about the risk of miscalculation — an unintentional nuclear exchange between Russia and NATO. “I don't want to hurt you, Boris,” he said (the Kremlin later denied this statement. Never believe anything Moscow says until it has been officially denied),” Johnson's memoirs say.