Steve Witkoff told Yuri Ushakov in an October phone call that a peace deal would require Russia taking control of Donetsk.
Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, told a top Kremlin official last month that peace in Ukraine would require Russia taking control of Donetsk and possibly agreeing to a separate land exchange, according to a recording of their call obtained by Bloomberg.
In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov — Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign policy adviser — Witkoff said he believed these land concessions were needed. He also encouraged Ushakov to congratulate Trump and speak in a more positive tone.
“Now, between me and you, I know what it will take to make a peace deal happen: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” Witkoff told Ushakov during the five-minute call, according to Bloomberg’s transcript. “But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s speak more hopefully because I think we’re going to reach a deal.”
The recording gives a clear look at Witkoff’s negotiation style and seems to show where the controversial 28-point peace plan, released earlier in November, originally came from.
During the call, Witkoff — who recently helped negotiate the Gaza ceasefire — suggested that Moscow and Washington create a joint peace plan similar to that agreement. “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.
He also gave advice on how Putin should bring up the topic with Trump, including tips about arranging a Trump-Putin phone call before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s upcoming White House visit.
Ushakov seemed to accept some of the suggestions. He said Putin “will congratulate” Trump and will say: “Mr Trump is a real peace man.”
The widely criticized 28-point plan would force Ukraine to give up the entire Donetsk region to Russia, including areas Ukraine still controls. Russia has not fully taken Donetsk.
Under the plan, these areas would become a demilitarized buffer zone, officially recognized as Russian territory. The proposal would also give Russia control of Luhansk and Crimea, and freeze the current front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Putin said this month that he thinks the US plan could be the “basis for a final peaceful settlement,” although the Kremlin claims it has not discussed the details with Washington.
These details surfaced as Trump said on Tuesday that he is sending Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow, and sending US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet Ukrainian officials — ahead of a possible White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this war is final or very close,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The US has been pushing Ukraine to accept the plan as the starting point for ending the nearly four-year war, but Ukrainian officials have said they will not recognize Russian control of occupied land or accept limits on their military.
The phone call happened as Trump’s tone toward Moscow seemed to be getting tougher. On the same day as the Witkoff-Ushakov call, Trump expressed irritation with Putin for not ending the war, saying: “I don’t know why he keeps going with this war. He just doesn’t want to end it. And I think it’s making him look very bad.”
