MOSCOW, February 8. TASS/. Russia’s troops will leave Belarus once the drills are over and there has never been any talk that they might stay there, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"No one has ever said that the Russian troops will stay on the territory of Belarus and there has never been any talk about that," the Kremlin press secretary assured.

"These are allied military exercises and, naturally, this implies that the troops will return to their permanent bases after these drills are over," Peskov emphasized.

The Kremlin spokesman was also asked to clarify whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed at the talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Russia would not conduct new maneuvers near the border with Ukraine. "I have not heard such reports," the press secretary said, replying to a question about whether such publications were true.