Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who issued an order to withdraw Russian army forces from the Kyiv region to create favorable conditions for negotiations as a goodwill gesture.

This came during an interview for Peskov with the French channel “LCI”, to talk about the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region.

“In order to create favorable conditions for negotiations, we wanted to make a goodwill gesture. We can take serious decisions during the negotiations, so Vladimir Putin ordered our forces to leave the Kyiv region”, - said Peskov.