Witkoff has his hand on Putin's heart

The lack of experience of US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff was fully revealed, according to international media, after an unprecedented phone call with a high-ranking Kremlin official was made public. How exactly the audio recording got out is not yet clear. According to The Telegraph, however, the fundamental problem is that diplomacy"often works most effectively outside the media spotlight - where it is sometimes necessary to flatter unpleasant leaders or make less than pleasant promises to achieve progress."

The British newspaper The Telegraph described the alleged advice Witkoff gave to the chief foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov as extremely clumsy. According to the available recording, Witkoff advised the Russian leadership"on how to deal with Trump and how to lead the stalled peace process."

Compliments for Putin

Another part of the leak, reviewed by Bloomberg, suggests that Witkoff even advised the Russian president on how to approach the US president before the planned contact. The media quoted him as saying: “I told the president that the Russian Federation has always wanted a peace agreement. That is my belief. I told the president that I believe that.”

Pokrovsk does not surrender."We will not let the enemy go," the soldiers command and show fierce resistance

The media is wondering whether this was "diplomatic flattery" or whether the US envoy truly sees Russia as a country that has always wanted peace, despite launching an illegal invasion of Ukraine. Also problematic is Witkoff's idea that Putin should have consulted with Trump before his planned meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Phone calls changed the dynamics of negotiations

The first leak was followed by another. According to The Telegraph, the second phone call, which also got into the hands of the media, shows how the Russian side sees the possibility of manipulation:"it is handing over its position to the Americans, but it does not make any commitments." At the same time, it is not clear whether Witkoff was equally accommodating towards Ukraine and whether he provided its representatives with recommendations of the same content.

The October 16 leak also influenced the US president's next steps, according to the British newspaper. After the phone call, Trump announced that he planned to meet Putin in Budapest -"but the meeting never took place." According to the recording, his approach to military support for Ukraine also changed, as he"also cooled on the idea of sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine."

Vladimir Putin received Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin

Growing Criticism of Envoy

The leaked conversations have raised serious doubts about Witkoff's ability to handle the difficult negotiations with Moscow, according to the media. The Telegraph reports that the leaks"again cast doubt on the progress of the peace talks and show the limits of Witkoff's understanding of Russia and its leadership." Analysis also suggests that the envoy may be "too close to Moscow and underestimates the threat posed by Putin."

The source of the leak itself remains unclear. The materials could have been provided by Russian or Ukrainian sources, European allies, or even opponents of Witkoff within his own administration. The Telegraph concludes by assessing that his unconventional style “may quickly cease to work” in a world where every clumsy sentence can become a geopolitical weapon.

The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the transcript.

In October, US envoy Steve Witkoff advised an adviser to the Russian president on how Vladimir Putin should conduct a conversation with US President Donald Trump about a peace plan for Ukraine. The White House has not disputed the authenticity of the transcript.

In the Oct. 14 conversation, Witkoff advised Ushakov, among other things, that Putin congratulate Trump on the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. Putin was also supposed to emphasize that Russia supports Trump's plan for Gaza and that the US president is a"man of peace." "At that point, it will be a really good conversation," the US envoy said, according to the transcript.

Trump called Witkoff's approach standard negotiation."He has to sell it to Ukraine and he has to sell it to Russia," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that this is the approach of everyone who wants to make a deal.

According to the Kremlin, the leak of phone calls between US and Russian officials is an attempt to sabotage peace talks on the war in Ukraine. Ushakov also made a similar statement, when asked by a Russian journalist why the call was made public, he said that it was an attempt to disrupt negotiations with the US."It is unlikely that this was done with the aim of improving relations," the Russian foreign policy adviser added.

Dmitriev called the transcript a fake

A call between Ushakov and Putin's Ukraine adviser Kirill Dmitriev was also released, in which they argued about how hard Moscow should push for its version of the peace plan. In the conversation, Dmitriev says, according to the transcript, that he will pass on the Russian plan but makes it clear that it is an informal document."I'll let them do it their own way," Dmitriev told Ushakov."But I don't think they will accept our version exactly, but at least they will get as close to it as possible," he added.

Dmitriev announced on social media that the transcript of his call was fake. On the X network, he wrote that the closer peace is, the more desperate the warmongers become.

The original plan for peace in Ukraine included, among other things, the fact that Ukraine would lose a significant portion of its territory, including areas that Moscow had failed to militarily occupy, and that Kiev would limit its army to a maximum of 600,000 soldiers and commit not to join NATO.

Several European countries considered the original 28-point plan of the United States for a political solution to the war in Ukraine to be pro-Russian. After negotiations between American, Ukrainian and European representatives, the peace plan underwent significant changes, but the details are not known.