Johnson said Putin expressed serious concern about NATO missiles being launched at Moscow. "No one was proposing to put NATO missiles on Ukrainian soil. But Putin kept coming back to this issue. He said it wouldn't take long for a missile launched from Ukraine to reach Moscow,

President Vladimir Putin has outlined a change to his nuclear doctrine, leading to predictable warnings of a radioactive Armageddon should the U.S. let Ukraine use American-made mid-range missiles against targets in Russia. That was, of course, his purpose.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack.