Russia offered a peace deal in exchange for Ukrainian neutrality in talks last April, an offer that Ukraine rejected on the grounds that Moscow could not be trusted to uphold the deal, according to Davyd Arakhamiia, a Ukrainian politician who led Kyiv’s delegation to the negotiations.

“They really hoped almost to the last moment that they would force us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality,” Arakhamiia said in a recent interview. “It was the most important thing for them. They were prepared to end the war if we agreed to — as Finland once did — neutrality and committed that we would not join NATO.”

The wide-ranging interview belies the Biden administration’s claim that talks were “not about NATO” and that Ukraine’s relationship to the bloc was a “non-issue.” It also adds nuance to the debate around former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s alleged role in scuttling the negotiations.

According to Arakhamiia, Johnson met with officials in Kyiv and “said that we would not sign anything with [the Russians] at all, and let’s just fight.” However, the Ukrainian official denied that his team was on the verge of signing a deal — a decision he says could only have come from a direct meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia — and insisted that Johnson’s comments were meant as advice, not a command.