President Donald Trump, whose envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow next week, said his peace plan had been "fine-tuned" and that he had no deadline for an agreement after earlier pressuring Kyiv to endorse a proposal by Thanksgiving.
Kyiv and its allies indicated they were broadly happy with changes to the plan, though key sticking points remained. As attention shifted to Russia, which has held to its maximalist demands, the leak added to questions about the Kremlin's role in negotiations.
Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, suggested 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 before a visit to the White House by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a transcript of the Oct. 14 call published by Bloomberg News. Bloomberg said it had reviewed a recording of the call but did not say how it obtained access to it.
Ushakov said Wednesday that 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 about the story.
In later comments, Ushakov said "some of these leaks are fake," adding 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 U.S. envoy.
Trump dismissed the controversy, describing Witkoff's reported approach on the call as "a very standard form of negotiation" and "what a dealmaker does."
Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One late Tuesday, Trump said his 28-point plan was "a concept" and "an original proposal," from which negotiators went "back and forth."
Trump said his son-in-law Jared Kushner may join Witkoff in Moscow, having earlier announced U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll would meet Ukrainians for further talks.
Asked whether Thanksgiving was no longer any sort of deadline, Trump responded: "You know what the deadline for me is?" he said. "When it's over. And I think everybody is tired of fighting at this point."
Ushakov said Wednesday that Russia had unofficially received several versions of the peace plan, which he said can be "confusing."
He said some aspects of it could be viewed "positively," but added that the situation was "evolving rapidly."
Asked whether Russia was closer to peace with Ukraine than ever before, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, "It's premature to say so."
Kyiv appeared confident Tuesday that it could finalize a deal with Trump by the end of the month, saying it was looking forward to organizing a Trump-Zelenskyy meeting in the U.S.
But Trump appeared to shoot that down, saying he would only meet with the two leaders once a deal was at its final stages.