PARIS, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin’s chief envoy for Ukraine told the Russian leader as war broke out that he had struck a temporary deal with Kyiv that would satisfy Russia’s demand that Ukraine stay out of NATO, but the Putin rejected her and pressed ahead. with his military campaign, according to three people close to the Russian leadership. The Ukrainian-born envoy, Dmitriy Kozak, told Putin he believed the deal he had struck removed the need for Russia to pursue a large-scale occupation of Ukraine, these sources said. Kozak’s recommendation to Putin to adopt the deal was first reported by Reuters. Putin had repeatedly argued before the war that NATO and its military infrastructure were moving closer to Russia’s borders by accepting new members from eastern Europe, and that the alliance was now preparing to bring Ukraine into its orbit. Putin publicly said this represented an existential threat to Russia, forcing him to react. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up But despite previously backing the talks, Putin made it clear when Kozak’s deal was presented that the concessions negotiated by his aide did not go far enough and that he had expanded his goals to include annexing parts of Ukrainian territory, they said sources. The result: the deal was rejected. Asked about Reuters’ findings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Nothing like this ever happened. It’s completely inaccurate information.” Kozak did not respond to requests for comment sent through the Kremlin. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said Russia used the negotiations as a smokescreen to prepare for its invasion, but did not answer questions about the substance of the talks or confirm that a preliminary agreement had been reached. “Today we clearly understand that the Russian side was never interested in a peaceful settlement,” Podoliak said. Two of the three sources said the push to finalize the deal came immediately after Russia invaded on February 24. Within days, Kozak believed he had Ukraine’s agreement on the key terms Russia was seeking and recommended that Putin sign a deal, the sources said. “After February 24, Kozak was given carte blanche: he was given the go-ahead, he got the deal. He brought it back and was told to clear it up. Everything was cancelled. Putin just changed the plan as he went,” said one of the sources. close to the Russian leadership. The third source – who was briefed on the events by people briefed on discussions between Kozak and Putin – differed on the timing, saying that Kozak had proposed the deal to Putin, and rejected it, shortly before the invasion. All the sources requested anonymity to share sensitive inside information. Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine is the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II. It prompted sweeping economic sanctions against Russia and military support for Ukraine from Washington and its Western allies. Even if Putin had agreed to Kozak’s plan, it remains uncertain whether the war would have ended. Reuters could not independently verify that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy or senior officials in his government were bound by the deal. Kozak, who is 63, has been a loyal Putin lieutenant since working with him in the 1990s in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office. Kozak was able to negotiate a peace deal because, starting in 2020, Putin had tasked him with holding talks with his Ukrainian counterparts over eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, which is controlled by Russian-backed separatists after an uprising in 2014. After leading a Russian delegation to talks with Ukrainian officials in Berlin on February 10 – brokered by France and Germany – Kozak told a late-night news conference that the latest round of those negotiations had ended without progress. Kozak was also among those present when, three days before the invasion, Putin gathered his military and security chiefs and key aides in the Kremlin’s Yekaterinsky Hall for a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. State television cameras captured part of the meeting, where Putin presented plans for official recognition of separatist entities in eastern Ukraine. As cameras panned outside the vast room with its neoclassical columns and domed ceiling, Kozak spoke out against Russia taking any steps to escalate the situation with Ukraine, two of the three people close to the Russian leadership said, as and a third person who learned about what happened from people who attended the meeting. Another person interviewed by Reuters, who helped with the post-invasion talks, said talks broke down in early March when Ukrainian officials realized Putin was committed to going ahead with the large-scale invasion. Six months after the start of the war, Kozak remains in his post as the Kremlin’s deputy chief of staff. But he is no longer handling the Ukraine file, according to six of the sources who spoke to Reuters. “From what I can see, Kozak is nowhere to be seen,” said one of the six, a source close to the separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Editor: Daniel Flynn Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
