‘Witi-Leaks’: Who made Trump peace envoy’s Kremlin phone call public?

A leaked phone call between senior United States and Russian officials has created a storm in Washington. Clamour has increased, including from some Republicans, for President Donald Trump to fire US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff after the latter was heard coaching Moscow on how to handle his boss.

Trump has, however, come to Witkoff’s rescue, calling him a “dealmaker”. After the controversy, dubbed “Witi-Leaks”, emerged, the focus has now shifted to who could have leaked these sensitive phone calls.

We take a look.

What’s in the phone calls?

Bloomberg reported two phone calls, one of which took place between Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior foreign policy aide.

Trump’s peace envoy appeared to be coaching Ushakov on how to present a peace proposal to the US president during an October 14 phone call.

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Witkoff reportedly said in the leaked call that peace would require Ukraine relinquishing Donetsk, one of the two Donbas regions demanded by Moscow, and potentially more territory.

“Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” Witkoff said, according to Bloomberg’s transcript. “But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here.”

Witkoff told the top Kremlin aide to ask Putin to congratulate Trump on the peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He also suggested setting up a Trump-Putin phone call before the planned visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House.

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The other leaked phone call was between Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s economic adviser, who has emerged as a prominent figure in peace talks.

“I’ll informally pass it along, making it clear that it’s all informal. And let them do like their own,” Dmitriev allegedly said during the call. “I don’t think they’ll take exactly our version, but at least it’ll be as close to it as possible,” he said, according to the transcript.

Bloomberg said it had “reviewed and transcribed audio” of the two phone calls but did not reveal how it obtained them.

Who could have leaked the phone calls?

Ushakov, who was on both of the calls, seemingly confirmed the authenticity of the recordings on Wednesday (November 26). However, he claimed some of it was “fake”.

He added that his conversations with Witkoff were confidential and that leaking such discussions to the media is “of course unacceptable”.

As Bloomberg’s story created a stir, questions have arisen about who could be behind the leaks.

Some suspect someone in the US leaked the call, while others suspect Russia or Ukraine’s hand.

In an interview with Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, Ushakov indicated that his calls with Dmitriev and Witkoff may have been made over WhatsApp. “There are certain conversations on WhatsApp that, generally speaking, someone might somehow be able to listen to,” he said.

While intelligence agencies tapping the calls is not unusual, the leak of such sensitive audio has come as a shock.

“It’s really hard to speculate. It could be 100 million different things, including somebody on the Russian side trying to hurt Witkoff’s reputation,” Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA Moscow station chief, told The Guardian.

The leak could have been done by the US, some suspect. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, who once called Putin “a gangster”, has also come under suspicion, as per The Telegraph.

While Rubio has defended the 28-point peace plan between Russia and Ukraine, sources told the British daily that his department was completely unaware of the proposal.

The report says that Rubio described the original peace plan as a “Russian wishlist” to senators.

However, the US Secretary of State throwing Witkoff, one of Trump’s closest allies, under the bus would be a likely “career-ending risk” for him if Trump got to know, according to The Telegraph.

Speaking to The Guardian, a senior former intelligence official said that while any intelligence agency could have intercepted the calls, the source is most likely to be from the US.

“There are different ways of intercepting calls, including traditional signals intelligence methods, cyber-attacks, and having access to the devices, so anything is theoretically possible, but my strong suspicion is that this came from the US side, and if that’s the case, you have two entities who are capable of doing this, the CIA and the NSA,” the official said.

It is also notable that Bloomberg obtained the audio of the recordings and not just a transcript or report of the call, which indicates the source could have direct access to intelligence collection or be senior enough to obtain the raw audio. Another former intelligence official told The Guardian that a European intelligence service stunned by Witkoff’s pro-Russian position may have made the calls public.  

Russia could also be behind the leak amid differences within the Kremlin. While warmongers want to seize Ukraine, others are in favour of stopping the fighting after four years to get Trump’s business offers.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who is known to despise Dmitriev, could be responsible for the leak, The Telegraph reported. Dmitriev is being seen as Lavrov’s potential successor.

As per The Guardian, Russian intelligence agencies have intercepted and released sensitive political calls before. But this time, they do not have an “obvious motive” to have compromised Ushakov and Witkoff. Still, given the differences in the Kremlin over who deals with the US, Moscow remains under suspicion.

Ukraine may have a motive to leak the phone calls. Kyiv is reportedly ill at ease with Witkoff’s role in peace negotiations.

Ukraine is likely to be interested in undermining Witkoff’s position, while exposing the “shocking extent of collaboration” between the Kremlin and Trump’s envoy, according to The Guardian. 

Making the calls public would indicate how off-putting the US-backed peace deal that requires Ukraine to give up land is to Kyiv. It would also show the lack of choice before Zelenskyy to agree to the peace plan, as per The Telegraph.

However, Kyiv would have likely considered the fallout with the US if caught before making any such move, The Guardian noted.

Aftermath of the leaked phone calls

The explosive phone calls have disclosed the closeness between the Kremlin and Trump’s peace envoy, Witkoff.

US politicians, including some Republicans, are now demanding that Trump axe him.

Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Witkoff’s immediate sacking. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X.

“He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired.”

Democratic representative Ted Lieu called Witkoff an “actual traitor,” and added: “Steve Witkoff is supposed to work for the United States, not Russia.”

Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, wrote that the leak represented “a major problem” and “one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop”. He urged that Marco Rubio be allowed to “do his job in a fair and objective manner”.

Despite the backlash, the US president has defended Witkoff and dismissed concerns that his aide could be too favourable to Russia.

Trump told reporters: “He’s gotta sell this to Ukraine, he’s gotta sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does”.

He added, “I haven’t heard it, but I heard it was standard negotiation. And I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each party has to give and take.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung said on X that there was “nothing wrong” with what was said in the “supposed” transcript. “In fact, it shows what a successful negotiator does in order to get a deal done.”

The US president’s special missions envoy, Richard Grenell, has called for firing the leaker and not Witkoff. “Find the leaker and fire them immediately. No excuses. The anonymous leaker is a national security risk,” he posted on social media.

Russia has denied a role in leaking the phone calls.

Ushakov suggested that leaking his conversation with Witkoff was an attempt to interfere in the Ukraine peace talks. “It is unlikely that this is done to improve relations,” he said.

He admitted that he talks to Witkoff regularly, but did not comment on the content of those conversations. “Someone is leaking, someone is listening, but not us,” he said when asked about the story.

Amid the row, Trump said Witkoff would be travelling to Russia next week, and could be accompanied by the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide also confirmed the visit.

“As for Witkoff, I can say that a preliminary agreement has been reached that he will come to Moscow next week,” Ushakov said.

With inputs from agencies