U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signalled he is no longer holding Ukraine to a Thursday target for agreeing to a Washington-backed peace outline, saying talks with Moscow and Kyiv are progressing and that the timing should be flexible.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida for the Thanksgiving break, Trump said Russia had accepted certain concessions in recent discussions. He declined to spell them out, noting only that negotiators were “moving along.”
The shift in tone follows unease sparked last week when reports surfaced that the White House had been pushing Ukraine to accept a deal that critics feared might lean toward Russian interests.
The debate intensified on Tuesday after Bloomberg published details of a 14 October call between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The outlet reported that Witkoff encouraged Moscow to present elements of a ceasefire concept directly to Trump and suggested arranging a Trump–Putin conversation ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit at the time.
Bloomberg said Witkoff referenced the recently negotiated Gaza truce as a potential bridge into talks on Ukraine.
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Asked about the report, Trump said he had not heard the call recording but was unsurprised by the alleged exchange.
“That’s a very standard form of negotiation,” he told journalists. “I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine.”
The White House has not disputed the existence of the conversation.
Trump said the conflict has tilted toward Russia in recent months and argued that Ukraine should consider reaching an accommodation sooner rather than later.
He suggested Russia could seize additional territory “over the next couple of months,” adding that any settlement will likely require Kyiv to make difficult choices.
Trump confirmed that Witkoff will meet Putin in Moscow next week, and said his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who helped broker the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas according to Reuters and the BBC, is assisting with diplomatic outreach.
European capitals, he noted, have been discussing security guarantees for Kyiv as part of the broader package under consideration.
Trump had said recently that he wanted Ukraine to sign onto an agreement by Thanksgiving. By Tuesday, he had retreated from that timetable. “The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he said. “We’d like it as soon as possible.”
