Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said in a BBC documentary that Russian President “sort of threatened” him before the invasion of Ukraine by throwing at him: “A missile would take a minute”.

In this three-part documentary, the former head of the British government recounts his “very long” and “extraordinary” call with Vladimir Putin after his visit to Kyiv at the beginning of last February.

Boris Johnson says that he had warned the Russian president of the harsh sanctions that Westerners would take if he embarked on this path.

“He said: “Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join NATO anytime soon. (...) What do you mean by "not anytime soon?””, - Johnson says.

“Well, she is not going to join NATO in the near future, you know that perfectly well”, - continued the former British leader.

“At one point he kind of threatened me and said, “Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile it would take a minute’ or something. I think that from the very relaxed tone he took, the detachment he seemed to have, he was playing with my attempts to get him to negotiate”, - adds the former British leader.