- The plan has raised concerns that Kyiv could be forced to accept a deal favorable to Russia.
- Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow soon, with Jared Kushner also involved.
- Trump abandoned his hinted Thanksgiving deadline and said he wants a deal now.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed away from a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to agree to a U.S.-backed peace plan, saying “the deadline for me is when it’s over.”
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, said American 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.-based framework for ending the war, first reported last week, raised fresh concerns that the Trump administration might be willing to pressure 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 negotiate the Gaza deal that brought about an uneasy ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, was also involved.
Trump, in recent days, had set Thursday the Thanksgiving holiday as the day he wanted Ukraine to accept a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But he and his advisers have moved away from a firm deadline and now say they would like to reach a deal as soon as possible.
“For me the deadline is when it’s over,” Trump said on Air Force One.
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 raise it with Trump.
Bloomberg said Witkoff’s guidance included suggestions on setting up a call between Trump and Putin ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit later that week, and using the recently concluded deal on Gaza as a way in.
When asked about the report, Trump said he had not heard the recording of the call on which Bloomberg based his story, but was not surprised because “that’s what a negotiator does.”
“You know, that’s a very standard way of negotiating,” he said. “I imagine he would be saying the same thing to Ukraine.”
Trump said it appeared Russia had the advantage in the war and that it would be better for Ukraine to reach a deal.
He said some Ukrainian territory “could be taken by Russia anyway” in the coming months.
Trump said security guarantees for Ukraine were being negotiated with the Europeans.
