Boris Johnson drops the bombshell: Putin threatened me with a missile attack before invading Ukraine

Boris Johnson has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile attack on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the BBC reports. The then British prime minister said the comment came after he warned the war would be a "complete disaster" during a lengthy phone call in February.

In a BBC documentary scheduled to air on January 30, Johnson said of the call with Putin: "He threatened me at one point and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, I will. "It just took a minute," Johnson said.

"But I think from the very calm tone he was taking, from the kind of air of detachment he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my efforts to get him to negotiate." Johnson said he warned her that the invasion would "lead to Western sanctions and more NATO troops on Russia's borders."

He also tried to thwart Russian military action by telling Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO "for the foreseeable future," according to the BBC. Nine days later, on February 11, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace flew to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.

The documentary "Putin Vs The West" reveals that Wallace left with assurances that Russia would not invade Ukraine, but he said both sides knew that was a lie. Less than two weeks later, as tanks rolled over the border on February 24, Johnson received a phone call in the middle of the night from Zelensky.