Trump Reacted To Bloomberg's Publication Of Whitkoff's Conversation With Ushakov

• 26.11.2025, 11:25

The US president said that Whitkoff was "selling Ukraine to Russia".

U.S. President Donald Trump commented on Bloomberg, which earlier released a transcript of a conversation between the U.S. leader's special envoy Steve Whitkoff and Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, reports The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ quotes Trump as saying the day before, "I haven't heard about it, no, but it's common, you know? Because he [Whitkoff] needs to sell this (peace deal. - Note) to Ukraine. He needs to sell Ukraine to Russia. That's what a negotiator does."

"You need to say, 'Look, they want this.' You need to convince them of that. That's a very standard form of negotiation <...> I assume he's saying the same thing to Ukraine because each side has to make concessions and get something," Trump added.

Bloomberg earlier published two transcripts of the conversations - one from Oct. 14 between U.S. presidential envoy Steve Whitkoff and Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, and a second from Oct. 29 between the Russian president's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Yuri Ushakov.

The conversation between Ushakov and Whitkoff lasted just over five minutes, according to Bloomberg. During it, Trump's envoy gave Vladimir Putin's aide advice on how the Russian ruler should discuss a peace settlement with his American counterpart. In particular, it was about organizing a phone conversation between the Russian and US presidents before the visit of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to the White House.