Bloomberg: Steve Witkoff gave advice to Moscow on how to talk to Trump on Ukraine

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, has given advice to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser on how to talk to the US president about the conflict in Ukraine, according to Bloomberg.

White House communications director Stephen Chung said in a statement that “proves one thing: Special Envoy Witkoff is talking to officials in both Russia and Ukraine on an almost daily basis to achieve peace, which is exactly what President Trump has appointed to do”.

Bloomberg published the content of the October 14 conversation between the former businessman and Yuri Ushakov, a diplomatic adviser to the Russian president, in which a future plan for settling the conflict was discussed, inspired by the recently announced plan to end the war in Gaza.

According to the document, published by Bloomberg, Witkoff proposes a phone call between Trump and Putin, in which the latter congratulates the US president on this success.

According to the same source, Witkoff advises that the call be made before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House, which was scheduled for October 17.

According to the same document, Witkoff adds, “I told the president that you have always wanted a peace agreement… That’s what I think,” he said, referring to a 20-point peace plan, similar to what we did for Gaza.

“He’ll congratulate him, and he’ll say Trump is really a man of peace,” Witkoff responded, referring to what Putin would say during the phone call with the US president.

“Well, between you and me, I know what it takes to conclude a peace plan: Donetsk and land swaps somewhere,” Witkoff said, referring to the eastern region of Ukraine claimed by Russia.

A phone call between Trump and Putin took place on October 16, 2025, on the eve of Zelensky’s visit.

The US president said at the time that significant progress had been made during the call.

Shortly before that, Trump was signaling discontent with the Russian president.

On 21 November, the United States proposed a peace plan for Ukraine that was considered very favorable to Russia.

But the initial plan has been modified to come up with a new, much better version of Kyiv, which Witkoff will discuss with Putin in Moscow, at Trump’s request.

Bloomberg published a transcript of another call between Ushakov and the Kremlin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who was engaged in discussions with US officials.

The transcript of the call in English and in its original version in Russian, said the conversation took place on 29 October.

“I think we will publish this paper about our position, and I will distribute it informally,” Dmitriev said.

“I don’t think they’re going to take our exact version, but at least it’s going to be as close as possible,” he said, apparently referring to US officials.

Kirill Dmitriev spent three days with Steve Witkoff and other US officials in Miami, Florida, between October 24 and 26.