November 26, 2025 08:00 PM IST
First published on: Nov 26, 2025 at 08:00 PM IST
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Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. (Photo: Reuters/ AP)
Russia has responded to the leak of a phone call between Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on the peace talks.
Ushakov on Wednesday suggested that 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 told Russian newspaper Kommersant.
‘Someone listening to WhatsApp calls’
According to Ushakov, 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.
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, second left, and US Secretary of state Marco Rubio, right, at the beginning of talks with the Ukrainian delegation at the US Permanent Mission in Geneva, Switzerland. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
Ushakov further said he makes some calls via WhatsApp, which “someone, apparently, can somehow eavesdrop on.” Calling the leaks of his confidential conversations with Witkoff “unacceptable,” Ushakov said he would discuss the development directly on a call with the US envoy.
Ushakov also suggested that “some of these leaks are fake.”
Earlier, Bloomberg had published the transcripts of a conversation between Ushakov and Witkoff on October 14 in which the US official is heard telling the senior Putin aide on how the Russian leader should go about pitching the US president on a Ukraine peace plan.
Witkoff advised Ushakov that Putin should call Trump to congratulate him and praise Trump for the Gaza peace deal.
Two days later, on October 16, the White House said that Putin, during a phone call had congratulated Trump on the successful Gaza peace deal and for “solving peace in the Middle East.”
Standard practice: Trump
The leak of the Witkoff-Ushakov conversation has reiterated the speculations expressed by many including some Republicans that the Trump peace plan was heavily tilted in Russia’s favour, and that Ukraine is being strong-armed into accepting an unfavourable deal.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, shakes hands with his envoy Kirill Dmitriev as U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, left, looks on, before talks in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Trump, however, played down the leak and described Witkoff’s approach as “standard” in negotiations.
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Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. (Photo: Reuters/ AP) 
