'Teaching murderers how to talk to Trump' – Ukrainians react to bombshell Witkoff leak
U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 18, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
An explosive leak implicating top U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff in shady dealings with Russia has sparked shock and astonishment not only in the U.S. but also in Ukraine.
According to conversations leaked by Bloomberg on Nov. 25, U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Witkoff advised a Russian official on how to sway the White House.
Ukrainian lawmakers, soldiers, and experts told the Kyiv Independent that the leak proves Witkoff could be a tool of the Kremlin rather than a neutral mediator.
Witkoff, a real estate mogul with no diplomatic background, was recently dispatched to Moscow to discuss the latest iteration of a new peace plan. He had already faced scrutiny for views that echo those of the Kremlin.
For some Ukrainians, the latest scandal has only reinforced their doubts about the credibility of Trump's envoy.
In one of the conversations leaked by Bloomberg on Nov. 25, two Kremlin aides discuss having Witkoff falsely present a Russian peace proposal as a U.S. initiative. The leak appeared to confirm recent media reports that Trump's peace plan unveiled on Nov. 20 was actually a collection of Russian demands.
"It shows that Witkoff effectively became the Kremlin’s key to the White House and, in this case, is acting more as a partner of Russia than as a neutral negotiator," Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker for the European Solidarity party, told the Kyiv Independent.
Pavlo Kazarin, a sergeant at a combat drone company in the 104th Territorial Defense Brigade, suggested that the U.S. under Trump is "run by people convinced that politics follows the same rules as the real estate business."
"The only real question is whether Trump is willing to admit that those he trusts may not fully be his people — but rather Putin's people," Kazarin told the Kyiv Independent.
'Key to the White House'
Witkoff's phone call with top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov was reportedly recorded on Oct. 14, mere days before a crucial – and ultimately disappointing – meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington.
The two officials appear to agree on a call between the Russian and U.S. presidents that turned the Trump-Zelensky meeting into a fiasco, with Witkoff even offering his counterpart pointers on how to approach Trump.
"It looks like collusion between Mr. Witkoff and the Russians."
"I would make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on this achievement… that you respect that he is a man of peace," Witkoff reportedly says, referring to the Gaza peace deal brokered beforehand.
The U.S. negotiator also professes his belief that Russia desires peace and says the final agreement would concern "Donetsk and maybe a land swap," likely in reference to Moscow's ambitions for seizing the entire Donetsk Oblast.
"To me it looks like collusion between Mr. Witkoff and the Russians," said Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee. "Mr. Witkoff’s statements and actions discredit the U.S. president and, perhaps, should be investigated."
When asked about the leaks, Trump rushed to Witkoff's defense, calling such backchannel diplomacy a "standard thing."
"He's got to sell this to Ukraine. He's got to sell Ukraine to Russia," the U.S. president told reporters, adding that he had not heard the audio.
In Ukraine, where soldiers have been fighting off Russia's all-out invasion for nearly four years, the response was far more visceral.
Petro, a serviceman at the 38th Marine Brigade, summarized the apparent revelations as "disgusting."
"Witkoff is teaching murderers how to talk to Trump properly?... If he’s advising them, then there’s every chance Trump will help the Russians," he said.
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a lawmaker for the Holos opposition party, noted that "Witkoff had already been discredited in Ukraine even before this — as a businessman and a partner of Russian pro-Putin oligarchs."
The latest news only confirmed that Witkoff acts in Moscow's interests, he added.
Witkoff has met Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times in recent months, often returning to Washington with grand plans for business deals with Russia while echoing Kremlin-drafted peace conditions.
Danylo Lubkivskyi, head of the Kyiv Security Forum, said that, even if the U.S. seeks to act as a mediator, "the tone of these conversations — where Witkoff, in essence, advises Ushakov on how to protect Russian interests — is difficult to interpret as friendly or impartial behavior."
The peace plan with a Russian trace
The leak appears to fill the gap in a sequence of backchannel events that led to the calamitous peace plan unveiled by the U.S. last week.
After Witkoff seemed to suggest to Ushakov that they should draft a 20-point peace plan – conceptually similar to the one in Gaza – Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev traveled to meet the U.S. envoy in Miami between Oct. 24 and 26.
Another intercepted conversation, recorded between Ushakov and Dmitriev on Oct. 29, appears to show them discussing the passing of an "unofficial" peace proposal to the U.S. side.
While Ushakov says Russia should go for the "maximum," Dmitriev says he would pass the Russian plan to the U.S. as an "informal" proposal.
Dmitriev also suggests having Witkoff falsely present the Russian peace proposal as a U.S. plan, confirming recent reports that Trump's blueprint was actually a Russian one.
"And let them do like their own (peace plan)," Dmitriev said. "But, I don’t think they’ll take exactly our version, but at least it’ll be as close to it as possible."
While Dmitriev dismissed the leak as "fake," Ushakov has not.
Then, Axios reported on Nov. 18 that Witkoff and Dmitriev had been quietly drafting a new, 28-point peace plan.
The proposal, which was later unveiled and aggressively pushed by Washington, imposed punishing conditions on Ukraine, including territorial concessions and limits on the size of Ukraine's armed forces, while asking little to nothing from Russia.
The plan has been watered down into a version more palatable to Ukraine during subsequent talks. However, Russia's reluctance to budge from its maximalist position and Trump's growing impatience make the future of the talks increasingly uncertain.
"In Ukraine, few ever doubted that the 'peace plan' was a Russian design," Ariev said.
Note from the author:
Hi, this is Martin Fornusek.
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