Putin rejected a peace deal as his Ukraine invasion began, report says, paving the way for Russia's military humiliation

• Putin refused to sign an offered peace deal with Ukraine at the start of the war, Reuters reported.
• Pushing ahead with the Ukraine invasion has exposed Russia's military weaknesses.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shelved a peace deal with Ukraine at the outbreak of his invasion, according to Reuters, in a move that thrust his troops into a much more arduous war than was expected.

Kremlin envoy Dmitry Kozak got Ukraine to agree to terms which would have kept it out of NATO, which would have satisfied one of Putin's key demands, Reuters reported.

On this basis, Kozak believed a full-scale invasion wouldn't be necessary, per Reuters.

But Putin didn't agree, telling Kozak that his goals had changed and that they now included annexing parts of Ukraine, Reuters' sources said.

The Kremlin firmly denied the existence of the deal, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Reuters: "This has absolutely no relation to reality. Nothing like this ever happened. It is absolutely false information."

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said there had been negotiations but did not directly confirm the deal's existence, simply telling Reuters: "Today we clearly understand that the Russian side was never interested in a peaceful solution."

Kozak did not respond to Reuters.

NATO's expansion was one of Putin's key grievances as he announced his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, calling the alliance a "military machine" that was "coming close to our borders."

Reuters' sources — all three of whom spoke anonymously — disagreed on the exact sequence of events. Two sources said that Kozak reached the deal within days of the February 24 invasion, while a third said it happened just before.

One of the first two sources — referred to as being close to the Russian leadership — told the outlet: "After February 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 go away. Everything has been cancelled."

Despite this, Putin publicly maintained the stance that Ukraine was poised to join NATO.

Russia's invasion exposed huge weaknesses in its military.

According to US intelligence, the Kremlin expected its invasion — framed in Russia solely as a "military operation" — to be over quickly, with Kyiv's capture projected within two days.

But instead its tank convoy headed towards the capital was humiliatingly repulsed in early March, and Ukraine has dealt big blows to Russia with high-tech equipment from its allies.

That means the "military operation" has mired the Russian army far deeper than expected, exposing its weaknesses in full view of international observers.

A raft of sanctions has isolated the country further, forcing it to seek military supplies from pariah states such as Iran and North Korea.

And a recent counter-attack in the northeast, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said recaptured 6,000 square miles of land, has boosted Ukraine's confidence further.

Since making his recommendation, Kozak has been reassigned to a different brief in the Kremlin, Reuters reported, which does not concern Ukraine. He was Russia's Deputy Prime Minister until January 15.