Putin threatened to kill me with missile attack, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin threatened to kill him in a missile attack, saying “it would only take a minute” in a call ahead of the invasion of Ukraine.

The former prime minister said the “extraordinary” conversation took place in February after he had visited Kyiv in a last-ditch attempt to show Western support for Ukraine amid growing fears of an assault.

Mr Johnson, who would emerge as a staunch backer of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, made the claim in a new three-part series for BBC Two looking at how the West grappled with Mr Putin in the years leading up to the invasion.