WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is set to travel to Moscow next week to meet with Russian leaders as momentum builds for a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, the United States and the Kremlin confirmed.

The visit comes on the heels of a report from Bloomberg detailing a leaked Oct. 14 phone call in which Witkoff coached a senior Kremlin official on how Russian President Vladmir Putin should pitch a peace plan to Trump.

Trump brushed off criticism about the transcript to reporters on Air Force One on Nov. 25 as he traveled to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending the Thanksgiving holiday. The president called Witkoff's conversation a "very standard form of negotiation."

"I haven't heard it, but that's a standard thing," Trump said. "You know, because he's got to sell this to Ukraine, he's got to sell Ukraine to Russia. That's what a dealmaker does."

Jared Kusher might accompany Witkoff to Russia

Trump said Witkoff would be traveling to Russia next week, a trip later confirmed by Yuri Ushakov, Putin's top foreign policy aide. Trump also said his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who helped orchestrate the Gaza peace deal and attended last week's Ukraine peace talks in Geneva, might accompany Witkoff.

"As for Witkoff, I can say that a preliminary agreement has been reached that he will come to Moscow next week," Ushakov said.

Ushakov is the same Russian official whose conversation with Witkoff is detailed in a transcript published by Bloomberg.

During the call, Witkoff advised Ushakov to have Putin congratulate Trump on the peace deal between Israel and Gaza, which had been recently secured, and to suggest a 20-point Russian-Ukraine peace plan modeled off the Gaza deal.

"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," Ushakov told Witkoff, referring to his boss, Putin.

Witkoff responded: "But here’s what I think would be amazing."

Witkoff added: "Maybe he says to President Trump: You know, Steve and Yuri discussed a very similar 20-point plan to peace and that could be something that we think might move the needle a little bit, we’re open to those sorts of things − to explore what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done."

Trump said in a Truth Social post Nov. 24 that only a few points of disagreement remain after the release of a 28-point peace plan written by the United States to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

"We're having good talks," Trump later said aboard Air Force One. "We started with Russia. We're having some talks with Russia. Ukraine is doing well. I think they're pretty happy about it. They'd like to see it end."

Trump says Russia-Ukraine talks seek to 'clean up the border'

Trump said he would like to secure a deal before he meets next with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A top Ukrainian official said his country and the United States had reached "a common understanding on the core terms" of an agreement.

Asked by reporters whether a peace deal was close, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agency Interfax as saying: "Wait; it's premature to say that yet."

The latest movements came after Ukrainian, American and European officials gathered in Geneva Nov. 23 to discuss a draft plan presented by Washington to end the conflict that began in 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The current version of the plan has not been made public, and it would have to be accepted by Russia. U.S. officials familiar with the discussion have declined to say what is in the working draft because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Kyiv and European allies had voiced alarm over an earlier draft of the Trump-backed proposal that would have required Ukraine to concede territory to Russia and cap the size of its military.

"People are starting to realize it's a good deal for both parties," Trump said. "They've got to stop the war. They're losing a lot of people."

Asked whether Ukraine ceding land is still on the table, Trump suggested both sides would be giving up land.

"Well, they're talking about going land both ways, trying to clean up a border," the president said. "You can't go through the middle of a house, you can't go through the middle of a highway. So, they're trying to work something."

Contributing: Francesca Chambers and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY; Reuters

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump envoy to visit Moscow on heels of leaked call with Kremlin

Reporting by Joey Garrison, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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