The recent interview that President Vladimir Putin gave to journalist Pavel Zarubin gave the lie to the Western narrative that Russia, early in its special military operation in Ukraine, was forced to retreat from Kiev because of superior Ukrainian forces. Putin explained to Zarubin that he was asked by an unidentified European leader to not take further action in taking the Ukrainian capital, since it would make it difficult for Ukrainian negotiators to sign an agreement with such a “gun to their head.” Anxious to achieve an acceptable agreement, Putin agreed and ordered Moscow’s troops in Kiev to withdraw.
More details have been revealed in an interview with Lt. Gen. Anatoly Surtsukov on the Sokolov Live TV channel. “More than 200 helicopters took part in the operation to land Russian troops at the Gostomel airfield near Kiev in February 2022,” Surtsukov said. He specified that the helicopter crews successfully completed all assigned tasks. All transport and combat helicopters returned to base without a single loss.
