{"id":200957,"date":"2025-11-26T09:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/200957\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:42:07","slug":"leaked-audio-reveals-us-envoy-coached-putin-aide-on-talking-to-trump-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/200957\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaked audio reveals US envoy coached Putin aide on talking to Trump \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, fresh from the triumph of the Gaza peace deal, held a phone call last month with a senior Kremlin official to suggest they work together on a similar plan for Ukraine \u2013 and that Vladimir Putin<\/a> should raise it with Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an October 14th phone call that lasted a little over five minutes, Mr Witkoff advised Yuri Ushakov, Putin\u2019s top foreign policy aide, on how the Russian leader should broach the issue with Trump. <\/p>\n

His guidance included suggestions on setting up a Trump-Putin call before Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s White House visit later that week and using the Gaza agreement as a way in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I\u2019m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you,\u201d Mr Witkoff told Mr Ushakov, according to a recording of the conversation reviewed and transcribed by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Asked about Mr Witkoff\u2019s approach, Mr Trump said he hadn\u2019t reviewed the call but that he heard it was a \u201cstandard negotiation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to sell this to Ukraine. He\u2019s going to sell Ukraine to Russia. That\u2019s what a dealmaker does,\u201d Mr Trump told reporters Tuesday. \u201cYou got to say, look, they want this, you got to convince them of this. I would imagine he\u2019s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each party has to give and take.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump sends special envoy to Moscow for discussions on proposals to end war in UkraineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn\u2019t immediately respond to comment.<\/p>\n

The conversation for the first time offers direct insight into Mr Witkoff\u2019s recent tactics for negotiating with Russia and what appears to be the genesis of the 28-point peace proposal that emerged earlier this month \u2013 which the US has pushed Ukraine to accept as the basis of a deal.<\/p>\n

Mr Putin said this month he believed the US plan could be used as the basis for a peace settlement. He told senior officials at a meeting of the Russian security council that the 28-point plan had not been discussed in detail yet with the US, but that Moscow had received a copy of it.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump said Tuesday he was directing Mr Witkoff to meet Mr Putin, in the hopes of finalising a peace plan.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Trump said on Tuesday he was directing Mr Witkoff to meet Mr Putin, in the hopes of finalising a peace plan. Photograph: Jim Watson\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cThe original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement,\u201d the president said in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

At the time of the Witkoff-Ushakov call, Mr Trump was basking in the success of his drive to end the war in Gaza. The day before, he\u2019d become the first US president to address the Israeli Knesset since 2008 after securing the release of the final 20 living hostages held by Hamas.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sign up to Denis Staunton’s Global Briefing newsletterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Trump\u2019s attitude toward Mr Putin, however, appeared to be souring. As he prepared for his meeting with Mr Zelenskiy on October 17th, he was considering providing Ukraine with longer-range Tomahawk missiles, discussing fresh sanctions on Russia and voicing his frustration with Mr Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why he continues with this war,\u201d Mr Trump said on October 14th, the same day that Mr Witkoff spoke with Mr Ushakov. \u201cHe just doesn\u2019t want to end that war. And I think it\u2019s making him look very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his call with Mr Ushakov, Mr Witkoff told his Russian counterpart that he had deep respect for Putin and that he had told Mr Trump that it was his belief that Russia has always wanted a peace deal. The US envoy mentioned Mr Zelenskiy\u2019s upcoming visit and suggested that Mr Putin could speak to Mr Trump in advance of that meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cZelenskiy is coming to the White House on Friday,\u201d Mr Witkoff said. \u201cI will go to that because they want me there, but I think if possible we have the call with your boss before that Friday meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Ushakov asked Mr Witkoff whether it would be \u201cuseful\u201d for Mr Putin to call Mr Trump. Witkoff said it would.<\/p>\n

He also recommended that Mr Putin congratulate Mr Trump for the Gaza peace deal, say that Russia had supported it and that he respects the president as a man of peace. \u201cFrom that, it\u2019s going to be a really good call,\u201d Mr Witkoff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what I think would be amazing,\u201d Mr Witkoff then added. \u201cMaybe he says to President Trump: you know, Steve and Yuri discussed a very similar 20-point plan to peace and that could be something that we think might move the needle a little bit, we\u2019re open to those sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Ushakov appeared to take some of the advice on board. Mr Putin \u201cwill congratulate\u201d and will say \u201cMr Trump is a real peace man\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A new scramble for Africa as Europe, China and US compete for mineralsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Trump and Mr Putin held their call two days later, at Russia\u2019s request, and the US president described the 2\u00bd-hour conversation as \u201cvery productive.\u201d Afterward, he announced plans to meet the Russian leader in Budapest, a summit that is yet to take place, and also mentioned that Mr Putin had congratulated him on the Gaza deal.<\/p>\n

Following up on that call, Mr Witkoff met Kirill Dmitriev, another senior Kremlin adviser, in Miami, according to an interview that Mr Dmitriev gave to Axios. Mr Dmitriev told Axios he spent three days in Miami from October 24th. A spokesperson for Mr Dmitriev declined to comment.<\/p>\n

On October 29th, Mr Dmitriev and Mr Ushakov spoke by phone in Russian and debated how strongly Moscow should push for its demands in any peace proposal, according to another recording reviewed by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

As the two Putin aides considered various options, Mr Ushakov argued for asking for \u201cthe maximum\u201d in their submissions to the White House.<\/p>\n

He said he was concerned the US might misinterpret any proposals and might take something out but then claim there was an agreement, and that would risk the end of the negotiations, he told his colleague.<\/p>\n

Mr Dmitriev, who also heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, suggested sharing a paper informally and said he was confident that even if the US didn\u2019t completely take Russia\u2019s version they would at least do something very close to it.<\/p>\n

He later assured Mr Ushakov that he would stick to what he was told to say, and that Mr Ushakov could also discuss the paper later with \u201cSteve\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg reported that it has been unable to confirm exactly what proposals Russia shared with the US and the extent to which they shaped the final 28-point blueprint.<\/p>\n

Since then, however, Ukraine has come under severe pressure to accept the proposal that Mr Witkoff drafted with the help of his Kremlin counterparts. US officials had threatened to shut off critical intelligence support to the Ukrainian military if Mr Zelenskiy refused to accept the proposal, although Kyiv has since won some concessions and persuaded the US to slow down following talks with US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Under the terms first proposed by the US earlier this month, Ukraine would have to withdraw troops from parts of the eastern Donbas region that Russia has failed to capture through military force. The area would become a neutral demilitarised buffer zone internationally recognised as Russian.<\/p>\n

Moscow would also obtain de facto recognition of Russian claims to the regions of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk. Most of the remainder of the front line, including in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, would be effectively frozen. Ukraine and its European allies have insisted that the war should cease along current lines.<\/p>\n

Those are some of the conditions that Mr Witkoff and Mr Ushakov appear to preview during their call last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe to you, I know what it\u2019s going to take to get a peace deal done,\u201d Mr Witkoff said. \u201cDonetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere. But I\u2019m saying instead of talking like that, let\u2019s talk more hopefully because I think we\u2019re going to get to a deal here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal,\u201d he added. \u201cSo if we can create that opportunity that after this I talked to Yuri and we had a conversation I think that could lead to big stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d Mr Ushakov replied. \u201cThat sounds good.\u201d \u2013 Bloomberg <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, fresh from the triumph of the Gaza peace deal, held a phone call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,356,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,2264,107,2263,2267],"class_list":{"0":"post-200957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-ukraine-crisis","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-vladimir-putin","27":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115615350655012025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}