Steve Witkoffspecial envoy of Donald Trumpgave advice to an advisor Vladimir Putin on how the Russian president should talk to the American president about the conflict in Ukraineaccording to a telephone conversation revealed on Tuesday by Bloomberg.
The US news agency said the transcript comes from a recording of the October 14 conversation between Witkoff and Yuri UshakovPutin’s foreign policy advisor, but gave no indication as to how that recording was obtained.
According to the transcript, Witkoff stated during the call that he believes Russiawhich started the guerra in Ukraine with a invasion on a large scale in February 2022, “has always wanted a peace agreement” and that he has “the deepest respect for President Putin.”
The U.S. envoy advised Ushakov that Putin should compliment Trump during an upcoming call about the recently concluded Gaza ceasefire and tell him “that he respects that he is a man of peace and that he is really happy” about that achievement.
Witkoff also suggested creating a 20-point peace plan for Ukraine, “just as we did in Gaza“, and urged Putin to address that issue with Trump.
“I think that… the president will give me a lot of room and discretion to reach an agreement,” Witkoff told Ushakov, as published by Bloomberg.
The phone call between Trump and Putin took place on October 16.
Criticism of kyiv
The US president described it as “very productive” and later questioned the initiative Kiev to acquire Tomahawk missiles, just one day before receiving the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyin the White House.
The telephone conversation between Witkoff and Ushakov appears to indicate the origin of a 28-point proposal backed by Trump and published on November 21, considered favorable to the Kremlin by demanding important territorial concessions from Ukraine and a commitment not to join the I’LL TAKE.
The proposal has since been amended to arrive at a new version that kyiv described as “significantly better” for Ukraine’s interests.
Witkoff will soon discuss that new version with Putin in Moscow. Trump said “there are only a few points of disagreement left.”
After the report was published BloombergTrump told reporters that he had not heard the recording, but called it “a standard form of negotiation“When asked if he was concerned that Witfkoff was very pro-Russian, the Republican referred to the human cost of the conflict. “Look, this war could last for years. “Russia has many more people and soldiers, so I think Ukraine must reach an agreement (…),” the president said.
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