{"id":173249,"date":"2025-11-26T11:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-russia-responds-to-leaked-call-between-witkoff-and-putin-aide-as-trump-says-russia-making-concessions-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:26:16","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-russia-responds-to-leaked-call-between-witkoff-and-putin-aide-as-trump-says-russia-making-concessions-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-russia-responds-to-leaked-call-between-witkoff-and-putin-aide-as-trump-says-russia-making-concessions-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Russia responds to leaked call between Witkoff and Putin aide – as Trump says Russia 'making concessions' – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report in the US has revealed what appears to be a leaked call between Vladimir Putin’s aide and Donald Trump’s go-to man for Ukraine talks. Russia has now responded – while Trump told reporters Moscow is “making concessions” and Ukraine is “happy”. Listen to The World as you scroll.
Wednesday 26 November 2025 11:25, UK
As peace negotiations gather pace, Ukrainian forces have sent out a warning that Russian troops are advancing at a key southern part of the frontline.
The situation is “really difficult” near the town of Huliaipole in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, the military’s general staff says in an update online, with “fierce battles for every metre of our native land”.
But Ukrainian troops are not surrounded, it adds: “There is no encirclement, communication with our soldiers is maintained, logistics are in place, and the evacuation of the wounded is being carried out.”
Moscow’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had taken the nearby town of Rivnopillya, putting Huliaipole in danger of Russian advances.
We’ve heard more from Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov about the reported leak of his phone call with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. 
Ushakov says the call was confidential, the leak was “unacceptable” and that some of the reported details are “fake”.
He adds that he and Witkoff will discuss the leak by phone before Witkoff’s expected meeting with Vladimir Putin next week.
Ushakov earlier said the leak, reported by Bloomberg, was probably done to “interfere” with peace talks (see our post at 06:38).
As the American push for peace in Ukraine continues, Vladimir Putin has taken a rare trip abroad – to Bishkek, the capital of former soviet state of Kyrgyzstan.
Pictures show him being welcomed by the Kyrgyz president, Sadyr Zhaparov, after his arrival yesterday.
The pair later laid wreaths at the Eternal Flame memorial on victory square in Bishkek to honour those fallen in the Second World War.
Putin is due to also meet with Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko in Bishkek today. 
The president is a key Putin ally, who has seen himself wooed by the US in what seems an attempt to get closer to the Russian president. 
Reuters reported today that the Trump administration is once more seeking to trade concessions with Minsk, including the release of another 100 Belarusian political prisoners.
Given the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, Central Asia is one of the few regions in the world that Putin can still visit. 
The only Central Asian ICC member, Tajikistan, had refused to arrest him during a visit last month.
Yesterday’s reports that Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff advised Russia on how to best approach the president over the Ukraine peace plan continues to make waves today.
In reality, “none of it should surprise us”, according to US correspondent Mark Stone<\/a>.<\/b>
The transcript is “jaw-dropping”, Stone says in the latest episode of our Trump100 podcast, which was published this morning.
But Witkoff has been “open and public about his fondness of Putin for a long time”, Stone says.
And, he adds, Witkoff “has displayed what is clearly a naivety for the subject, unable to name Ukrainian provinces that are in contention”.
The envoy is now preparing to go head-to-head on the matter with Moscow representatives next week.
Stone is sure that Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent, will be “chuckling quietly as he goes up against the former real estate agent Steve Witkoff”.
Listen to Stone’s full analysis on what motivates Witkoff in the latest Trump100 episode below… <\/b>
👉 FollowTrump100on your podcast app of choice 👈<\/b><\/a>
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov has said that representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian special services discussed sensitive issues, including prisoner exchanges, in the UAE this week.
However, he revealed that the Russian side did not discuss a peace deal in Abu Dhabi, despite a US army spokesperson saying talks were “going well” – comments we reported yesterday.
“During the meeting, there was a contrived coincidence. It was the new US representative [army secretary Dan Driscoll], who is currently working on the Ukrainian dossier,” he said. 
“He also showed up and had a meeting, as I understand it, with Ukrainian representatives – this was probably arranged in advance. And, quite unexpectedly, he also met with our representatives.”
Ushakov said that the peace plan “has not been discussed in detail with anyone yet”, and Moscow has yet to receive the official document.
“Russia unofficially received several versions of the US peace plan, which can be confusing,” Ushakov said.
Donald Trump has been giving the impression that Ukraine and Russia have got closer to a deal as he argues that Moscow has agreed to some concessions.
But that’s not the impression that our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett<\/b><\/a> has been picking up in the Russian capital.
“In fact, quite the opposite,” he told the Mornings With Ridge and Frost <\/a><\/b>programme. 
“I was at a press conference yesterday where the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was asked to give his impression on this latest peace plan… and he said that if it erased key understandings, then it would be a fundamentally different situation.”
Watch Bennett’s full analysis, including his take on the latest revelation surrounding Steve Witkoff, below…<\/b>
“That makes it pretty clear that this is not something that Russia is going to agree to,” Bennett says. 
“That’s because, of course, it removes those major concessions of the original plan that they wanted in place, that cross all those red lines of Ukraine.” 
All eyes are now on Trump envoy Steve Witkoff’s reported trip to Moscow next week, where he will supposedly seek Russia’s approval.
“But I’m not sure he’ll be leaving with it,” our Moscow correspondent concludes.
Ursula von der Leyen has said the European Commission is ready to present a legal text on how to manage Russian frozen assets in the Ukraine war.
The European Commission president has addressed European Parliament, where she declared that more effort was needed in securing a peace deal, but acknowledged there was a starting point.
Von der Leyen said any peace deal must guarantee security for Ukraine and Europe.
“If today we legitimise and formalise the undermining of borders, we open the doors for more wars tomorrow, and we cannot let this happen,” she said.
The lingering question is whether Russia could at all agree to the EU and Ukraine’s amendments to the original 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine.
This is one of the issues that this week’s episode of The World podcast is looking at. 
NBC News’ correspondent Richard Engel has been at the peace talks happening in Geneva and breaks down the US plan with our lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim<\/b><\/a>. 
They go through the main sticking points: territory, military and NATO membership.
Listen for yourself below…
👉<\/i>Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim on your podcast app<\/a>👈<\/b>
We reported earlier that Vladimir Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov has responded to a report detailing a leaked conversation he had with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff (see 6:38).
Those remarks came as Russia’s foreign ministry chimed in on Europe’s position over peace proposals, with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accusing the continent’s leaders and media of “information attacks”.
They are trying to “disrupt the possibility of political and diplomatic settlement”, she added.
One of the most contentious issues in the initial US 28-point peace plan involved Ukraine making territorial concessions to Russia, including the entirety of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.
Below are the latest battlefield maps showing the territory held by both Ukraine and Russia.
Much of the current focus is on the key city of Pokrovsk, but the frontline stretches across the east of the country.
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report in the US has revealed what appears to be a leaked call between Vladimir Putin’s aide and Donald Trump’s go-to man for Ukraine talks. Russia has now responded – while Trump told reporters Moscow is “making concessions” and Ukraine is “happy”. Listen to The World as you scroll.Wednesday 26 November 2025 11:25, UKAs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}