By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed away from a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to agree to a U.S.-backed peace plan and shrugged off a report that U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff coached the Russians on how to approach him on the topic.
Trump, speaking to reporters on board Air Force One as he flew to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, said U.S. negotiators were making progress in discussions with Russia and Ukraine, and Moscow had agreed to some concessions. He did not detail them.
A U.S.-based framework for ending the war, first reported last week, prompted fresh concerns that the Trump administration might be willing to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted toward Moscow.
Trump said his envoy Steve Witkoff would be traveling to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week and that his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who helped negotiate the Gaza deal that brought about an uneasy ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, was also involved.
Trump in recent days had set the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday as the day when he wanted to see Ukraine agree to a deal to bring about an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But he and his aides have backed away from a firm deadline and now say they would like an agreement as soon as possible.
“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” Trump said on the presidential aircraft.
Bloomberg News reported that Witkoff, in an October 14 telephone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to Putin, 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 Trump-Putin call before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit later that week, and using the recently concluded Gaza agreement as a way in.
Asked about the report, Trump said he had not heard the recording of the call that Bloomberg based its story on but that he was not surprised because “that’s what a dealmaker does.”
“You know, that’s a very standard form of negotiation,” he said. “I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine.”
Trump said it appeared that Russia had the upper hand in the war and that it would be in Ukraine’s best interests to reach an agreement.
He said some Ukraine territory “might be gotten by Russia anyway” over the next couple of months.
Trump said security guarantees for Ukraine were being negotiated with Europeans.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Don Durfee, Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)
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