In a telephone conversation that took place on October 14 (a few days before Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s last visit to the White House) and lasted about five minutes, Vitkoff, in particular, gave Ushakov advice on how to praise Trump and talked about “the deepest respect for Putin.”
Ushakov called Witkoff “my friend” and praised him for the Gaza peace agreement. Then they moved on to the topic of the Russian war against Ukraine.
Ushakov asked if it would be useful if the “bosses” talked among themselves. Vitkoff responded to this that Trump would supposedly be ready to do this as soon as the Russian Federation proposes a conversation.
Witkoff goes on to say that he recommends praising Trump for his efforts on Gaza.
“I would […] simply reiterated that you congratulate the President on this achievement, that you supported him, that you respect him as a man of peace and that you are really glad that this happened. I think this will be a really good decision,” Vitkoff told Ushakov.
Ushakov replied that Putin and Trump could discuss this over the phone: “Steve, I agree with you. He will congratulate, say that Trump is a real peacemaker, and so on.”
Further, Witkoff thought out loud that perhaps a 20-point peace agreement should be developed for Ukraine, as was the case with Gaza.
Witkoff also suggested that a deal would require “Donetsk and maybe some territory swaps somewhere,” and suggested that Trump would give him enough authority to reach an agreement.
In addition, Vitkoff said that Zelensky was coming to the White House and suggested to Ushakov that a conversation between Putin and Trump take place before the arrival of the Ukrainian president. Ushakov thanked for the advice, emphasizing that he would discuss everything with his “boss” and then contact him again.
The conversation between Putin and Trump actually took place – when Zelensky was already flying to the United States. Trump called the conversation “productive” and announced then that he intended to meet with Putin in Budapest, but later canceled the meeting.
From this telephone conversation it follows that it could become the source of the US “peace plan”, which appeared already in November.
Context
Bloomberg wrote that the 28-point plan, which was agreed upon by Vitkoff and Putin’s special representative for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, was not accepted, because it had many contradictory aspects. After a response from Kyiv and European partners during negotiations between delegations of Ukraine, European countries and the United States in Geneva on November 23, the Russian-American document was changed, reducing it to 19 provisions.
The White House released a statement after the negotiations that the amended draft peace agreement reflects Ukraine's national interests.
After the meeting of the US and Ukrainian delegations in Geneva, negotiations between the United States and the Russian Federation were organized in Abu Dhabi. Axios wrote on November 25 that the Ukrainian delegation, led by the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Moscow Region, Kirill Budanov, is also in Abu Dhabi and is negotiating with both the American and Russian teams.
The United States assesses peace negotiations with the Russian Federation as “successful,” the media emphasized.
The White House said on November 25 that the US had made “tremendous progress” towards a peace agreement. They noted that “there are several delicate, but not insurmountable, details that need to be resolved” and “which will require further negotiations between Ukraine, Russia and the United States.” Thus, CNN named three key points of the “peace plan” on which there is still no agreement between Ukraine and the United States.
On November 25, Trump expressed the opinion that agreements to resolve the war of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation against Ukraine are very close. The head of the White House instructed Witkoff to meet with Putin in Moscow, and US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll with the Ukrainian side in Kyiv in order to finalize the “peace plan.”
