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As Russia embarked on its invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a deal struck with Ukraine by a top aide that would have kept the former Soviet state out of the NATO alliance, according to a report.
Dmitry Kozak, Putin’s deputy chief of staff, reportedly informed the Russian leader that he had negotiated the agreement with Ukraine immediately after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion and recommended to Putin that he accept the deal, according to Reuters. Putin instead opted to press on with the invasion, despite the fact that the deal would’ve removed a significant grievance that the Russian president used to justify the military incursion into the country.
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The report cites people close to Russian leadership.
“After Feb. 24, Kozak was given carte blanche: they gave him the green light; he got the deal. He brought it back and they told him to clear off. Everything was cancelled. Putin simply changed the plan as he went along,” one source reportedly said.
Putin reportedly supported negotiations between Kozak, who is Ukrainian-born, and Kyiv, but later decided that he wanted to annex Ukrainian territory and thus thought the provisional deal preventing Ukraine from joining NATO didn’t benefit Russia enough to stop the war, according to the report.
Before the invasion, Putin claimed that the prospect of NATO armaments moving closer to Russia’s border through NATO expansion presented an existential threat to his country.
One of the sources recalled a slightly different timeline of events, saying the deal was struck moments prior to the invasion.
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The Kremlin denied the report in a statement to Reuters, and Ukrainian officials would not confirm whether a deal was agreed upon.
Kozak remains listed at his post as a top aide to Putin on the Kremlin’s website, but according to the report he no longer handles duties related to Ukraine.
