Hafsa Khalil
Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump has defended special envoy Steve Witkoff as doing the “standard thing” after a leaked recording appeared to show him advising a Russian official on how to appeal to the president.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he had not heard the audio, but that Witkoff was doing “what a dealmaker does” to “sell” the peace plan to both Russia and Ukraine.
The leaked call from last month emerged after days after a 28-point draft peace plan presented by the US largely reflected Russian positions on its full-scale war in Ukraine.
Witkoff has visited Moscow several times this year and will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin again next week. He has not held talks in Kyiv.
He has never gone to Kyiv in his role as special envoy, although other US officials have visited and US army secretary Dan Driscoll went to Kyiv this week and Trump says he will hold further talks with the Ukrainians.
Diplomatic talks have continued after the initial draft plan was criticised by Ukrainian and European leaders as being too favourable to Russia. Among the proposals was a handover to Russia of Ukrainian-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.
The plan has since been revised to better reflect Ukraine’s interests and the views of European allies and Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Trump to discuss outstanding “sensitive points”.
In the leaked audio recording obtained and shared as a transcript by Bloomberg, Witkoff appeared to advise Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, on how to get on Trump’s good side.
BBC News has not independently verified the reported 14 October call, but Trump said it represented a “very standard form of negotiations”.
During the leaked conversation, the two men reportedly talk about ending the war, with Ushakov asking if it would be useful to get their bosses – Putin and Trump respectively – to speak.
Witkoff is quoted as saying he does and that “my guy is ready to do it”, and before suggesting how to go about the call.
“Just reiterate that you congratulate the president [Trump] on this achievement… that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen,” Witkoff is quoted as saying. “I think from that it’s going to be a really good call.”
“I told the president that you – that the Russian Federation has always wanted a peace deal. That’s my belief,” Witkoff adds according to the transcript. “The issue is is that we have two nations that are having a hard time coming to a compromise.”
“I’m even thinking that maybe we set out like a 20-point peace proposal, just like we did in Gaza,” Witkoff adds.
The call ends with Witkoff telling Ushakov of an imminent Zelensky visit to the White House and that “if possible”, Trump and Putin should talk before that meeting.
What followed was a two-and-a-half hour phone call between the US and Russian presidents, news of which emerged as Zelensky was on his way to Washington last month.
Before the Trump-Putin call, the US president had appeared to be running out of patience with his Russian counterpart and had suggested he might provide Ukraine with long-range Tomohawk missiles.
By the time Zelensky entered the White House, the atmosphere appeared to have changed. Trump said giving Kyiv Tomohawks could escalate the conflict and he believed Putin “wants to end the war”.
Asked about the leaked call, Yuri Ushakov told Russian state media that it was done to “hinder, probably” and that it was “unlikely” to be done to improve relations.
He also confirmed that Witkoff would be visiting Moscow next week as per a “preliminary agreement”.
It was not clear who was behind the leak, but Bloomberg has also transcribed another reported call between Ushakov and Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who spent days with Witkoff in Miami in late October weeks before the 28-point draft plan emerged.
According to the transcript, Dmitriev tells his Russian colleague: “we’ll just make this paper from our position, and I’ll informally pass it along, making it clear that it’s all informal. And let them do like their own.”
Apparently angered by the report, Dmitriev complained of a “well-funded, well-organised malicious media machine built to spread fake narratives, smear opponents and keep people confused”.
