Trump defends Witkov after leaks reveal envoy was guiding Russia

US President Donald Trump has defended special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying he did the “standard thing” after a leaked recording appeared to show the envoy advising a Russian official on how to appeal to the president.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he had not heard the audio but that Witkov was doing “what dealmakers do” by “selling” the peace plan to Russia and Ukraine.

The leaked call last month came just days after the United States presented a draft 28-point peace plan that largely reflects Russia’s stance on its all-out war in Ukraine.

Vitkov has visited Moscow several times this year and will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin again next week. He has yet to hold talks in Kyiv.

He has never traveled to Kyiv as an envoy, although other U.S. officials have visited, as did U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll this week, and Trump said he would hold further talks with the Ukrainians.

Diplomatic talks are continuing after Ukrainian and European leaders criticized the initial draft plan as being too favorable to Russia. One of the proposals is to hand over Ukrainian-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine to Russia.

The plan has since been revised to better reflect Ukraine’s interests and the views of its European allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to meet with Trump to discuss outstanding “sensitive issues.”

In a leaked recording obtained Bloomberg shares as transcriptWitkov appeared to provide advice to Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, on how to side with Trump.

BBC News has not independently confirmed reports of the Oct. 14 call, but Trump said it represented “a very standard form of negotiation.”

In the leaked conversation, the two reportedly discussed ending the war, with Ushakov asking whether it would be useful to have their bosses – Putin and Trump – speak.

Vitkov reportedly said he was willing and “my people are ready to do it,” and then offered suggestions on how to conduct the call.

“Just to reiterate, you congratulate the president (Trump) on this achievement… you respect him as a man of peace and you’re really happy to see this happen,” Vitkov said. “I think from that point of view, it’s going to be a very good decision.”

“I told the president that the Russian Federation has always wanted a peace agreement. This is my belief,” Witkov added in the transcript. “The problem is that it’s very difficult for our two countries to reach a compromise.”

“I was even thinking that maybe we would come up with a 20-point peace proposal, like we did in Gaza,” Witkov added.

At the end of the call, Vitkov told Ushakov that Zelensky was about to visit the White House and that “if possible,” Trump and Putin should talk before the meeting.

The news followed a two-and-a-half-hour phone call between the U.S. and Russian presidents, which came as Zelensky was en route to Washington last month.

Trump’s call with Putin came after the U.S. president appeared to be losing patience with his Russian counterpart and suggested he might provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.

When Zelensky entered the White House, the atmosphere seemed to change. Trump said supplying tomahawks to Kiev could escalate the conflict and that he believed Putin “wanted to end the war.”

Asked about the leaked transcript of the call, Yuri Ushakov told Russian state media that it was done to “possibly hinder” and “unlikely” to improve relations.

He also confirmed that Vitkov will visit Moscow next week under a “preliminary agreement”.

It’s unclear who was behind the leaks, but Bloomberg also documented another call between Ushakov and Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who spent several days with Vitkov in Miami in late October, weeks before the 28-point draft plan was released.

“We will write the paper from our standpoint, and then I will pass it on informally, making it clear that this is all informal. Let them do it their own way,” Dmitriev told his Russian colleagues, according to the transcript.

Dmitriev was visibly outraged by the report, complaining that it was “a well-funded and well-organized malicious media machine designed to spread false narratives, discredit opponents and confuse people.”