A leaked phone call revealed a top aide of President Trump helped coach the Russians on how to win President Trump over with flattery and pitch a Ukraine peace deal, according to a report.<\/b>
\nA leaked phone call revealed a top aide of President Trump helped coach the Russians on how to win the commander in chief over with flattery while navigating negotiations on a Ukraine peace deal, according to a report.
The call between Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Oct. 14, discussed the possibility of Putin and Trump hopping on a phone call to discuss a peace plan, according to the transcript of a recording obtained by Bloomberg.
On the five-minute call, Witkoff advised Ushakov to instruct Putin to congratulate Trump and open the conversation with some complimentary remarks.
\u201cI would make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on this achievement, that you supported it, supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace, and you\u2019re just, you\u2019re really glad to have seen it happen,\u201d Witkoff said.
\u201cHey Steve, I agree with you that he will congratulate, he will say that Mr. Trump is a real peace man, and so and so. That he will say,\u201d Ushakov said, appearing to take the suggestion.
Witkoff also laid out how he believed the peace deal would be accomplished, maintaining he thought that land concessions were necessary.
\u201cNow, me to you, I know what it\u2019s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,\u201d Witkoff told Ushakov.
\u201cBut I\u2019m saying instead of talking like that, let\u2019s talk more hopefully because I think we\u2019re going to get to a deal here,\u201d he continued.
Witkoff, who helped broker the 20-point Gaza peace plan, suggested to Ushakov that Moscow and Washington emulate that deal.
\u201cWe put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace, and I\u2019m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you,\u201d Witkoff said.
The call came days before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House for discussions.
Witkoff urged Ushakov to get Putin and Trump on the phone before his sitdown with Zelensky.
\u201cI will go to that meeting because they want me there, but I think if possible, we have the call with your boss before that Friday meeting,\u201d he said.
Trump said he hadn\u2019t heard the Witkoff recording, but shrugged it off when asked Tuesday night during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One.
The president maintained the call between Witkoff and Ushakov was a \u201cstandard form of negotiation.\u201d
\u201cThat\u2019s a standard thing. He\u2019s got to sell this to Ukraine, he\u2019s got to sell Ukraine to Russia, that\u2019s what a dealmaker does. You got to say, look, you want this, you got to convince them of this.
\u201cThat\u2019s a very standard form of negotiation. I haven\u2019t heard it, but I heard it was a standard negotiation, and I would imagine he would say the same thing to Ukraine, cause each party has to give and take,\u201d Trump continued.
The discussion between the top officials appeared to predict Witkoff\u2019s approach to constructing Trump\u2019s controversial 28-point peace plan to end the nearly four-year war between the nations.
The Russia-friendly plan, which called for Ukraine to give up the entire Donbas region, shrink its army by a third, and abandon its NATO ambition, was eventually slimmed down to a 19-point plan by senior Washington and Kyiv delegations.
The new plan would nix one of the most controversial provisions that Ukraine would have to give up territory in the Donbas that Russia has been unable to conquer in more than 11 years of war there.
Russia is set to reject the revised cease-fire proposal, suggesting the war will last until at least Christmas, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n