Report reveals that Steve Witkoff coached a Putin aide on how the Russian leader should guide Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s top interlocutor with the Russian government last month advised a top aide to Vladimir Putin on how the Russian leader should go about convincing the U.S. president of a peace plan aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a transcript of the call published by Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

Trump envoy Steve Witkov, according to a transcript of the October 14 call published by the news service, advised Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that Putin should call Trump to congratulate him on the Gaza peace deal, say that Russia supported him and that he respects the president as a man of peace.

“From that standpoint, it’s going to be a really good call,” Witkoff said, according to the transcript.

When Russian state media asked for comment on the Bloomberg report, Ushakov did not question the authenticity of the recordings but said Moscow had not leaked them. He also said the calls were likely leaked to “disrupt” US-Russian relations. “This is unlikely to be done to improve relations,” he said.

Read more: Who is Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian envoy who helped draft Ukraine peace proposal?

Ushakoff also said he spoke with Witkoff on the phone “often” but declined to discuss the content of the recording. “The essence of these conversations is that they are confidential. I will not comment. No one should comment.”

The Bloomberg report came as Trump said on Tuesday that the proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine had been “fine-tuned” and announced that he would send Witkopf to meet with Putin.

The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the text, and Trump described Witkoff’s approach toward 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 aboard Air Force One as he headed home to Florida on Tuesday evening. “That’s what a deal maker does.”

But U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who has criticized Trump’s approach to Ukraine, said the text showed Witkoff favored the Russians. “He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a paid Russian agent do less than him? He should be fired,” Bacon said on social media.

Bloomberg said it reviewed a recording of the call, but did not say how it gained access to the recording. The Associated Press has not independently verified the text.

The Witkoff-Ushakov call came a day after Trump made a triumphant visit to Israel and Egypt to celebrate the conclusion of a ceasefire in Gaza.
“This is what I think is going to be amazing,” Witkopf told his counterpart during the call, according to Bloomberg. “He might say to President Trump: ‘You know, Steve and Uri discussed a very similar 20-point plan for peace, and that could be something that we think might move things along a little bit, and we’re open to that kind of thing.’

Witkoff also suggested a call between Trump and Putin before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House later that week, and suggested that Putin congratulate Trump on the Gaza agreement as an entry point into the call. Ushakov agreed that Putin would “congratulate” and say “Mr. Trump is a true man of peace.”

Trump and Putin ended up speaking to each other a day before the US President held talks at the White House with Zelensky. Shortly after this meeting with Zelensky on October 17, Trump said that Ukraine and Russia should “stop where they are” on the battlefield — meaning that Ukraine should cede territory that Russia had seized from its neighbor.

Watch: ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ follows Ukrainians forced to fight in Russian invasion

On October 29, Ushakov spoke by phone with Kirill Dmitriev — a close adviser to Putin on Ukraine — and they discussed how aggressively Moscow should press its demands in a potential peace proposal, according to another recording reviewed by Bloomberg.

“I’ll pass it on unofficially, make it clear that it’s all unofficial. Let them do what they want,” Dmitriev told Ushakov back and forth. “But I don’t think they will take our exact version, but at least it will be as close to it as possible.

The exchange occurred shortly after Dmitriev traveled to Florida for talks with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and informal adviser, which centered on creating the framework for a 28-point peace plan.

The original plan, which became public last week, appeared heavily skewed toward Russian demands and included calls for Ukraine to cede the entire Donbas region to Russia and significantly reduce the size of its army. It also included an agreement from Europe to never allow Ukraine to join the NATO military alliance.

“This story proves one thing: Special Envoy Witkoff speaks with officials in both Russia and Ukraine almost every day to achieve peace, which is exactly what President Trump appointed him to do,” White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung said in a statement.

Dmitriev said in a social media post that the text was “fake” and said in a second post: “The closer we get to peace, the more desperate the warmongers become.” The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that the proposal was written by the United States, with input from both the Russians and the Ukrainians, in response to bipartisan opposition in Washington that the leaked plan amounted to a Russian wish list. The State Department declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would send Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials while Witkopf met with Putin. Trump also indicated that he may eventually meet with Putin and Zelensky, but not before making more progress in negotiations.