Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with Russian President Putin in early February 2022 — a few weeks before the start of a full-scale war. During the conversation, Putin tried to intimidate the British politician.
Johnson told about this in an interview with "Babel".
In the conversation, Putin told Johnson that he was not going to attack Ukraine and was outraged that Ukraine wanted to join NATO.
"I said what was true at the time: that Ukraine will not join NATO in the near future, because many other countries — the French, the Germans, the Hungarians — are against it. I said that Ukraine is not a threat to him. Putin clarified what ʼin the near futureʼ means — next month, next year. He tried to make me say that Ukraine will never join NATO. I couldnʼt say that because I didnʼt believe it," Johnson added.
However, now, according to him, there are no arguments against Ukraine joining NATO, because earlier the country was not accepted because of fear of Putin, and "this led to the worst war in Europe in 80 years."
"Even during this conversation, Putin was playing with me. He tried to present this conflict as a nuclear confrontation between Russia and NATO. He ambiguously joked, saying, ʼI wouldnʼt want to hurt you with a nuclear weapon, Boris.ʼ That is, he hinted that it could happen by accident and nobody needs such mistakes. He tried to intimidate," Johnson emphasized.
The British ex-prime minister believes that in reality the invasion of Russia did not happen because of NATO, but because of "dislike for Ukraine and the fear that it will choose a different path, different from Russiaʼs" — Putin wanted to suppress Ukrainian freedom and rebuild the Soviet empire.
- On July 11, at the NATO summit, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine will receive an invitation to NATO when all allies agree to it and the conditions are met. First of all, these are the fight against corruption, reforms to modernize public administration institutions (including the security and defense sector), compatibility with NATO standards, and the end of the war. In addition, the Alliance canceled the MAP for Ukraine. Instead, the countries of the "Big Seven" and the countries of Northern Europe declared their readiness to provide security guarantees for Ukraine. More about them here. Already 24 NATO countries have supported Ukraineʼs membership. Currently, almost a quarter of NATO standards have been implemented in the Ukrainian army.