Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange, according to a recording of their conversation obtained by Bloomberg.
In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said he believed the land concessions were necessary all while advising Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically.
“Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” Witkoff told Ushakov during the five-minute conversation, according to Bloomberg’s transcript. “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.”
The US envoy also offered tactical guidance on how Putin should raise the subject with Trump, including suggestions about scheduling a Trump-Putin telephone conversation before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House visit later that week.
On Wednesday, Ushakov appeared to confirm the authenticity of the phone conversation, telling Russian state TV that the leak was probably an attempt to “hinder” the talks.
“As for Witkoff, I can say that a preliminary agreement has been reached that he will come to Moscow next week,” Ushakov said.
The White House did not dispute the veracity of the transcript, and Trump described Witkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.
“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One as he flew to his home in Florida on Tuesday night. “That’s what a dealmaker does.”
The recording offers a direct insight into Witkoff’s negotiating approach and appears to reveal the origins of the controversial 28-point peace proposal that emerged earlier in November.
On the call, Witkoff, who recently helped broker the Gaza ceasefire agreement, suggested Moscow and Washington develop a joint peace framework modelled on that deal. “We put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I’m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you,” he said.
Ushakov appeared to take some of the advice onboard. Putin “will congratulate” and will say: “Mr Trump is a real peace man,” he said.
The heavily criticised 28-point proposal would require Ukraine to cede the entire Donetsk region to Russia, including areas under Ukrainian control. Russia has not fully captured Donetsk.
Those territories would become a demilitarized buffer zone recognised internationally as Russian, and the plan would also grant Russia control of Luhansk and Crimea while freezing battle lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Putin said this month he believed the US plan could serve as the “basis for a final peaceful settlement”, though the Kremlin maintains it has not discussed the proposal in detail with Washington.
The revelations come as Trump said on Tuesday he was sending Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow, and the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, to meet with the Ukrainians – ahead of a possible White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The US has pushed Ukraine to accept the framework as the foundation for ending the nearly four-year conflict, though Ukrainian officials have insisted they will not recognise Russian control of occupied territories or accept limits on their military forces.
The phone conversation took place as Trump’s stance toward Moscow appeared to be hardening. On the same day as the Witkoff-Ushakov call, Trump voiced frustration with Putin’s unwillingness to end the war, saying: “I don’t know why he continues with this war. He just doesn’t want to end that war. And I think it’s making him look very bad.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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