By Shane CroucherShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberYuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the leak of a call between him and U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff was intended to meddle with the building of Moscow-Washington relations, as a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine takes shape.
In the call, reported by Bloomberg, Witkoff privately coached senior Kremlin advisers, including Ushakov, on how to pitch a Ukraine peace deal to Trump. The initial 28-point draft plan that emerged after Witkoff's conversations with Russian officials was criticized by Ukraine and its European allies as tantamount to capitulation to Moscow.
Speaking to a journalist for the Russia 1 channel on Wednesday, Ushakov said he speaks with Witkoff "fairly often" but would not comment on the content of their conversations.
"I don’t know why they’re so interested in publishing conversations. Why is this being done? In my view, for what purpose? To interfere," Ushakov said, originally in Russian. "It’s hardly being done to improve relations. Right now, relations are being built—built with difficulty—being built through these kinds of contacts, including telephone ones."
Ushakov said a "preliminary agreement has been reached" that Witkoff will travel to Moscow next week along with "a number of other members of the [Trump] administration who deal with Ukrainian matters."
The Kremlin aide said the substance of his conversations with Witkoff is "confidential," adding: "I do not comment on it. And no one, no one should comment. Where do they even get such information from? Someone leaks it, someone eavesdrops."
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
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