Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, is facing severe bipartisan backlash after a conversation he had was leaked to the press regarding a top foreign policy aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin about a peace deal in the war in Ukraine.

In the October conversation obtained by Bloomberg, Witkoff told Yuri Uhsakov, Putin’s foreign policy assistant, that he knew how “to get a peace deal done” by offering land concessions, including the occupied Donetsk region. Witkoff told Ushakov to take an approach that would appease President Donald Trump.

“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 said. Ushakov said Putin would congratulate Trump and call him “a real peace man.”

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