- The plan has sparked concerns that Kyiv could be pushed toward a Russian-leaning deal.
- Steve Witkoff will soon travel to Moscow, also with the participation of Jared Kushner.
- Trump waived the planned Thanksgiving deadline, saying he wanted a deal now.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed away from setting a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to accept a U.S.-backed peace plan, saying “for me, the deadline is when it’s finished.”
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, said U.S. negotiators were making progress in talks with Russia and Ukraine, and that Moscow had agreed to some concessions. He did not detail them.
A U.S. framework aimed at ending the war, first announced last week, has raised new concerns about the Trump administration’s desire to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted toward Moscow.
Trump said his envoy Steve Witkoff would soon travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who helped broker the Gaza deal that resulted in an uneasy ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, was also involved.
In recent days, Trump had set Thursday as the Thanksgiving holiday as the day he wanted to see Ukraine accept a deal ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But he and his aides have given up on setting a firm deadline and now say they would like a deal as quickly as possible.
“The deadline for me is when it’s finished,” Trump said aboard the presidential plane.
Bloomberg News reported that Witkoff, in an Oct. 14 phone call with Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, said they should work together on a ceasefire plan for Ukraine and that Putin should discuss it with Trump.
Bloomberg said Witkoff’s advice included suggestions on arranging a Trump-Putin call ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit later in the week, and using the recently reached Gaza deal as a way to accomplish that.
Asked about the report, Trump said he had not heard the recording of the call Bloomberg based his story on, but was not surprised because “that’s what a dealmaker does.”
“You know, it’s a very standard form of negotiation,” he said. “I imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine.”
Trump said it appeared Russia had the upper hand in the war and that it would be in Ukraine’s interests to reach a deal.
He said part of Ukraine’s territory “could be taken by Russia anyway” in the coming months.
Trump said security guarantees for Ukraine were being negotiated with the Europeans.
