The Russian negotiator on Ukraine’s affairs denied the disclosure of the phone call

According to Isna, Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s investment representative and negotiator on Ukraine, has said that the text of the alleged phone call against him and other Russian officials published by the Bloomberg News network is false.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg claimed to have obtained an audio file of Dmitriev’s brief conversation with Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, on October 29. This publication did not publish the audio file, but published the text in Russian and English.

“Fake,” Dmitriev wrote about the news on X.

According to Rasha Today, he previously accused the Western media of spreading false information in an attempt to derail US President Donald Trump’s efforts to mediate peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Last week, the White House confirmed it had drafted a peace plan that critics in the United States and European Union said favored Russia’s terms. The EU has since tabled a counter offer, while US and Ukrainian officials met on Sunday to further discuss Trump’s draft.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the draft had been leaked to create a “media frenzy” aimed at undermining Donald Trump’s mediation efforts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also called speculation about the details of the talks “ridiculous,” adding that Moscow “does not engage in rhetorical diplomacy.”

According to the transcript of a phone call published by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s chief negotiator with the Russian government last month advised a top aide of Vladimir Putin on how the Russian leader should respond to the US president’s peace plan aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

According to a transcript of the Oct. 14 phone call released by the news service, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff advised Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that “Putin should call Trump and congratulate him on the Gaza peace deal, say that Russia supported it and that he respects the president as a man of peace.”

According to the Associated Press, the White House did not question the authenticity of the transcript, and Trump described Wittkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.

Bloomberg said it reviewed the audio of the conversation, but did not say how it obtained the audio. The Associated Press has not independently verified the transcript of the conversation. The Witkoff-Ushakov call came a day after Trump’s triumphant trip to occupied Palestine and Egypt to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire.

According to another audio file published by Bloomberg, Ushakov spoke by phone with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s close adviser on Ukraine, on Oct. 29 and discussed how much Moscow should push for a possible peace offer.

In this conversation, Dmitriev told Ushakov: “I will inform them informally and make it clear that everything is informal. And let them go as they wish. But, I don’t think they will accept our version exactly, but at least it will be as close as possible.”

The American media claimed that the exchange took place shortly after Dmitriev traveled to Florida for talks with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and informal adviser, which focused on creating a framework for a 28-point peace plan.

In response to the claims, Dmitriev said in another post on social media: “The closer we get (to talks), the closer we get (to peace).”

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

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