A leaked recording of a phone call between Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and a senior Kremlin official has revealed the contours of a controversial Ukrainian peace plan, according to Bloomberg. The 14 October conversation with Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, shows Witkoff arguing that Russia must gain control of Donetsk and possibly arrange a territorial swap to secure a deal.
In the five-minute call, Witkoff advised Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically. “Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” he said. The US envoy also suggested scheduling a Trump-Putin telephone call before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House visit later that week.
Ushakov confirmed the call’s authenticity to Russian state television, calling the leak an attempt to “hinder” talks. The White House did not dispute the transcript, and Trump described the approach as “standard” negotiating. “He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” Trump told reporters.
The recording appears to reveal the origins of a 28-point peace proposal that would require Ukraine to cede the entire Donetsk region, including areas under Ukrainian control. Those territories would become a demilitarised buffer zone recognised internationally as Russian, while Russia would also gain control of Luhansk and Crimea, with battle lines frozen in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Putin has said the plan could serve as a “basis for a final peaceful settlement”, although the Kremlin has not discussed it in detail with Washington. Trump announced he is sending Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow and US army secretary Dan Driscoll to meet Ukrainians, ahead of a possible White House meeting with Zelenskyy. The US has pushed Ukraine to accept the framework, but Kyiv insists it will not recognise Russian control of occupied territories or accept limits on its military.
