US call leaked to disrupt Ukraine peace talks, deal not even close yet: Kremlin

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a phone call between senior officials from the US and Russia was leaked with the intent to disrupt peace talks and added that it was premature to say that a deal to end the war in Ukraine was forthcoming soon. President Donald Trump, whose envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow next week, said his peace plan had been “fine-tuned” and that he had not set any deadline for an agreement after earlier pressuring Kyiv to endorse a proposal by Thanksgiving. Kyiv and its allies signalled that they were broadly happy with changes to the plan, though the key sticking points remained.

Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the leak of his conversation with Witkoff was an attempt to interfere in the peace talks. “It is unlikely that this is done to improve relations,” he said.

Witkoff advised his Russian counterpart on how to best appeal to Trump about a peace plan and suggested setting up a call with Putin prior to a White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, read a transcript of the Oct. 14 call published by Bloomberg News, which said it had reviewed a recording of the call but did not say how it got access to it.

Ushakov said he talks to Witkoff regularly, but does not comment on the content of those conversations. “Someone is leaking, someone is listening, but not us,” he said when asked. He futher said that “some of these leaks are fake,” and that his conversations with Witkoff were confidential and that leaking them to the media was “unacceptable.” He said he would discuss the leaks directly on a call with the US envoy.

Ushakov said he makes some calls via WhatsApp, which “someone, apparently, can somehow eavesdrop on.”

Meanwhile, Trump dismissed the controversy and said Witkoff’s reported approach on the call was “a very standard form of negotiation” and “what a dealmaker does.”

Bloomberg also published a transcript of an Oct. 29 call between Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, a close Putin adviser who has become a key figure in talks.

Asked if Russia was closer to peace with Ukraine than ever before, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “It’s premature to say so.”

The original 28-point peace plan leaked last week appeared to favour Moscow heavily, forcing Ukraine to cede territory, including areas its army currently controls. It also envisioned a reduction to Ukraine’s military and a ban on Kyiv joining NATO.