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Donald Trump defended Steve Witkoff’s role in efforts to end the war in Ukraine and dispatched him to Moscow for more talks next week, as he brushed off leaked transcripts that appeared to show his envoy advising a Kremlin official on how to court the White House.
Speaking on board Air Force One late on Tuesday, Trump described as “standard negotiations” a leaked October call between Witkoff and Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, in which the American referred to a need for Ukraine to give up Donetsk province in any peace deal, crossing a long-standing red line for Kyiv.
“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does,” Trump said of Witkoff, whom he said was set to go next week to Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly along with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Trump’s comments follow days of intense diplomacy, with the US president pressing for an agreement with Russia to end the conflict on terms that have sparked fears across many European capitals.
Trump last week set a November 27 deadline for Ukraine to agree to a peace plan backed by the US that was originally highly favourable to Russia. But after a series of talks between US and Ukrainian officials over the weekend in Geneva, Trump has backed away from that ultimatum.
“I don’t have a deadline. You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Witkoff had advised Ushakov in an October phone call on how to pitch a peace deal to Trump, suggesting that they emulate the approach used to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I would make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on this achievement, that you supported it, you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen. So I would say that,” Witkoff told Ushakov, according to the transcript.
Ushakov responded: “OK my friend . . . I agree with you that he will congratulate, he will say that Mr Trump is a real peace man and so and so,” according to the transcript, which the FT has not independently verified.
Witkoff also told Ushakov: “I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere.”
Speaking to a Russian state television reporter on Wednesday, Ushakov did not deny that the transcripts were real and suggested that someone had leaked them to interfere in the Kremlin’s talks with the White House.
“It’s unlikely this is being done to improve relations,” he said.
The transcripts were criticised by some Republicans as evidence that the White House was favouring Moscow as it sought an end to the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, wrote on X that “it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians”, adding that “he cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations”.
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