Witkoff to meet Putin next week despite leaked call suggesting complicity with Kremlin

US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is to travel to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin next week, despite the publication of a phone transcript that appeared to show Witkoff advising a top Putin aide on how to win Trump’s support in peace negotiations with Ukraine. 

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said his administration had made “tremendous progress” towards peace between Russia and Ukraine over the past week, with only “a few remaining points of disagreement” after the White House’s initial 28-point plan to end the war was trimmed down to 19 points following consultations with Kyiv.

Trump added that he had directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Vladimir Putin in Moscow while Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll would be meeting with Ukrainian representatives. The US president also said that he hoped to meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.

Trump later told reporters on Air Force One that Witkoff may be joined by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who reportedly helped Witkoff draft the White House’s controversial initial peace plan in consultation with Putin’s Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov confirmed on Wednesday that a “tentative agreement” had been reached for Witkoff to travel to the Russian capital accompanied by several other US officials “who are involved in Ukrainian matters” next week.

That confirmation came just hours after Bloomberg published a transcript it prepared after reviewing a leaked recording of a 14 October call between Witkoff and senior Putin aide Yury Ushakov, in which Witkoff gave Ushakov advice on how to frame the Kremlin’s proposals for a peace deal to Trump and appeared to hint at a peace plan that later developed into the 28-point document.

During the five-minute call, Witkoff advised Ushakov to refer to Trump as a “man of peace” and to congratulate him on brokering a ceasefire in Gaza the previous week. He also suggested that Washington and Moscow could jointly formulate a “very similar 20-point plan to peace” between Russia and Ukraine.

“I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: [Russian control over] Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” Witkoff reportedly told Ushakov. “But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here.”

Trump defended the call as “standard negotiations” and insisted that Witkoff, as a “dealmaker”, had to “sell” the prospect of peace to both Moscow and Kyiv. Ushakov, meanwhile, said the transcript had been leaked to “hinder” progress in talks between Russia and the US.