VLADIMIR Putin made a chilling threat to Boris Johnson that he could kill him in a missile attack, the former PM reveals today.
Mad Vlad’s menacing phone call came a day after Boris visited Kyiv last February amid fears of a Russian invasion.
Mr Johnson makes the shock claim in a BBC series starting tonight.
Mr Johnson tried to use his trip to warn the Kremlin an assault would be disastrous.
Paranoid Putin feared Nato encroachment on his borders.
Moscow was told there would be tough sanctions if Putin invaded and “more Nato, not less” in the region — which triggered Mad Vlad’s threat.
And last night ex-Armed Forces minister Mark Francois said: “The very idea that the Russian President could have personally threatened the life of a British Prime Minister is extraordinary.”
Mr Johnson describes the menacing phone call in three-part series Putin vs the West on BBC2 and BBC iPlayer from 9pm tonight.
He recalls: “I got Putin on the blower again. He said, ‘Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join Nato any time soon. What is ‘Any time soon?’.
“And I said, ‘Well, it’s not going to join Nato for the foreseeable future. You know that perfectly well.
“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.
“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.
“And this is a very long call and a most extraordinary call. He was being very, very familiar.
“I said to him, ‘Look, if you do this, it will be an utter catastrophe. It will mean a massive package of Western sanctions. It will mean we continue to intensify our support for Ukraine’.”
General Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of Joint Forces Command, said Putin’s threats were hollow because he did not have enough missiles to spare.
He said: “More likely than not Mr Putin was indulging in a degree of malevolent levity.
“He will need all the missiles he can get to delay Ukraine throwing Russia out of its country.”
Putin backfire
Mr Francois said Putin’s aggression clearly backfired, “as Boris rapidly rallied the Europeans against the Russian invasion and has been one of Zelensky’s staunchest supporters ever since”.
And ex-Army officer Col Richard Kemp said: “Putin has always tried to intimidate foreign leaders or put them on the spot by making personal remarks and saying things they wouldn’t expect in normal international diplomacy, whether face to face or by phone.
“It is his way of testing them, throwing them off balance and gaining the upper hand.”
Former defence minister John Spellar said: “This shows the true nature of Putin’s barbaric regime. It shows we must be continually vigilant over the Russian state.”
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace tells the documentary how he was dispatched to Moscow following the threat to Boris for a last-ditch attempt to avoid war.
Before the meeting the translator was forbidden from helping the UK delegation due to a positive Covid test — despite receiving a negative reading on the plane.
Mr Wallace tells how the Russians kept saying the Ukrainians “won’t fight” but instead “will welcome them” into the country.
He says: “I remember saying to Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu ‘they will fight’ and he said, ‘My mother is Ukrainian, they won’t!’
“He also said he had no intention of invading. That would be ‘Vran’e’ in the Russian language.
“Vran’e I think is sort of a demonstration of bullying or strength: I’m going to lie to you. You know I’m lying. I know you know I’m lying and I’m still going to lie to you.
“He knew I knew and I knew he knew. But I think it was about saying: I’m powerful. It was the fairly chilling but direct lie of what they were not going to do that I think, to me, confirmed they were going to do it.”
Within three weeks, on February 22, Putin gave the go-ahead for his invasion.
The UK committed £2.3billion to Ukraine last year, and aims to match that over the next year.
Ministers have also provided anti-tank missiles and air defence systems and three M270 long-range multiple launch rocket systems.
Mr Johnson was ousted from No 10 in September.
Current PM Rishi Sunak has also given permission to send a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to help thwart an expected spring offensive by Russia.
The US and Germany recently pledged M1 Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks in a major step-up of Western support to combat Vlad’s forces.
TANK YOU, UK
By Jerome Starkey
UKRAINIAN soldiers have landed in the UK to learn how to use British Challenger 2 tanks against their Russian invaders.
The Ministry of Defence shared pics of the arrivals exiting an RAF plane yesterday. The troops will begin training today, the Government said. They include tank operators and crew who will maintain them.
Fourteen tanks are due to arrive in Ukraine by the end of March.
ARMY 'HORROR'
By Will Stewart
RUSSIA’S top brass are horrified at Vladimir Putin’s demand for a new offensive on multiple fronts in Ukraine, it is claimed.
They fear yet more slaughter as a study suggests they have lost more than 175,000 troops. Analyst Valery Solovey, former professor at Moscow’s Institute of International Relations, said: “The Army General Staff is terrified.
“I am not exaggerating. They are horrified.”
