diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/content/fetch.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/content/fetch.go
index 96933eb9a..01abb4cad 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/content/fetch.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/content/fetch.go
@@ -61,19 +61,19 @@ Most of this is experimental and there are few leaps to make this work.`,
 		var (
 			ref = clicontext.Args().First()
 		)
-		_, err := Fetch(ref, clicontext)
+		client, ctx, cancel, err := commands.NewClient(clicontext)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		defer cancel()
+
+		_, err = Fetch(ctx, client, ref, clicontext)
 		return err
 	},
 }
 
 // Fetch loads all resources into the content store and returns the image
-func Fetch(ref string, cliContext *cli.Context) (containerd.Image, error) {
-	client, ctx, cancel, err := commands.NewClient(cliContext)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-	defer cancel()
-
+func Fetch(ctx context.Context, client *containerd.Client, ref string, cliContext *cli.Context) (containerd.Image, error) {
 	resolver, err := commands.GetResolver(ctx, cliContext)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go
index 4ea72b6bf..10e4f1d52 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go
@@ -57,10 +57,20 @@ command. As part of this process, we do the following:
 		if ref == "" {
 			return fmt.Errorf("please provide an image reference to pull")
 		}
-		ctx, cancel := commands.AppContext(context)
+
+		client, ctx, cancel, err := commands.NewClient(context)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
 		defer cancel()
 
-		img, err := content.Fetch(ref, context)
+		ctx, done, err := client.WithLease(ctx)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		defer done(ctx)
+
+		img, err := content.Fetch(ctx, client, ref, context)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}