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Russia knew it could be deceived but pulled forces off Kiev in 2022 to avoid bloodshed

Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled that the draft of the Istanbul accords was agreed upon on April 15, 2022

TOGLIATTI, January 28. /TASS/. Russia was aware that it could be deceived when it pulled its troops off Kiev during the negotiations with Ukraine in the spring of 2022 but did it to avoid bloodshed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

He recalled that the draft of the Istanbul accords was agreed upon on April 15, 2022. "But before that, some of the European leaders told me over the phone that Ukraine cannot sign a peace treaty, as one of the colleagues put it, <…> with a gun at the head. I said: ‘Well, Ok, and what is to be done? You need to pull your troops off Kiev," he said in an interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin.

"It was clear for us that we could be deceived, as Russia had been for decades when they said some things but did absolutely different," he noted.

"Nevertheless, we agreed to do this (pull troops off Kiev - TASS) to avoid bloodshed, a serious war and began troops withdrawal in late March," he recalled.

The first Russian-Ukrainian talks after the beginning of the special military operation were held in early March 2022 in Belarus but yielded no results. Another round of talks was held in Istanbul in late March 2022 when Moscow received a document from Kiev about the conditions for a potential agreement. It included Ukraine’s obligations to observe a neutral, off-bloc status and not to deploy foreign weapons, including nuclear, on its territory. Following this, Russia withdrew its troops in the Kiev and Chernigov areas but, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kiev backed out of the agreements and the talks were frozen. As Ukraine’s chief negotiator David Arakhamia said later that it was former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who prohibited Kiev from signing peace agreements with Russia and demanded that Ukraine continue military activities against Russia.