U.S. lawmakers respond to a leaked Witkoff-Ushakov phone call. Ukraine strikes a plant in Chuvashiya manufacturing missile navigation equipment. Von der Leyen lists EU’s priorities for a Ukraine peace plan.
U.S. lawmakers respond to leaked Witkoff-Ushakov phone call
U.S. House representatives reacted to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg, detailing a leaked phone call between Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign-policy adviser Yuriy Ushakov.
Republican Representative, Don Bacon said Tuesday that Witkoff “cannot be trusted” and called for his immediate dismissal. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign and democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired,” Bacon said on X.
Witkoff advised his Russian counterpart on how to best appeal to Trump about a peace plan and suggested setting up a call with Putin prior to a White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on October 17, according to a transcript of the October 14 call published by Bloomberg News. Bloomberg said it had reviewed a recording of the call but did not say how it obtained access to it.
Republican representative Brian Fitzpatrick called it “a major problem.” “This is a major problem. And one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop. Allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to do his job in a fair and objective manner,” he said on X Tuesday.
“Actual traitor,” posted Democratic representative Ted Lieu. “Steve Witkoff is supposed to work for the United States, not Russia,” he said on X on Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday that while he was unaware of the phone call, it is “standard” practice. “[Witkoff has] got to sell this Ukraine, he’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia, that’s what a deal maker does,” Trump said. “You got to say, look, they want this, you got to convince them of this,” he added.
Bloomberg also published a transcript of an October 29 call between Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, a close Putin adviser. According to the transcript, Dmitriev tells his Russian colleague: “We’ll just make this paper from our position, and I’ll informally pass it along, making it clear that it’s all informal. And let them do like their own,” he said.
Ukraine strikes plant in Chuvashiya manufacturing missile navigation equipment
The Ukrainian military hit overnight the VNIIR Progress plant in the Chuvashiya region that specializes in manufacturing navigation equipment and other parts used in attack drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement Wednesday. The strike triggered a fire.
“The VNIIR Progress plant is manufacturing GNSS receivers and antennas for GLONASS, GPS and Galileo satellite systems, including Kometa modules used in Shahed attack drones, Iskander-M and Kalibr missiles as well as UMPK gliding and correction modules for glide bombs,” the statement read. The damage is being assessed.
Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Major Robert Brovdi posted a video to social media detailing the strike.
Ukrainian drones also hit a command post belonging to a unit of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army in Vasylivka in occupied Zaporizhzhia region, a TOR-M1 surface-to-air missile system in Mariupol, brigade-level ammunition warehouses in Ocheretyne and Kamyanka in occupied Donetsk region as well as a troop concentration in the Pokrovsk direction, the General Staff said.
Von der Leyen lists EU’s priorities for Ukraine peace plan
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listed the EU’s five priorities for a peace process to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I would like to outline some of the core priorities for Europe as we work with Ukraine, the United States and the Coalition of the Willing on the way forward. The first priority is that any agreement should deliver a just and lasting peace. And it should ensure real security for Ukraine and Europe,” von der Leyen said, speaking at a plenary debate of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
Ukraine as a sovereign nation can have no cap on the size of its military, she said.
“Ukraine needs robust, long-term and credible security guarantees as part of a wider package to dissuade and deter any future attacks from Russia. And it is equally clear that any peace agreement needs to ensure that European security is guaranteed for the long-term,” von der Leyen said.
The second priority is to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty, she continued.
“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, adding that “Ukraine’s future lies in the European Union” and that it is an “essential part of any security guarantee framework.”
The third priority, according to von der Leyen, is to secure Ukraine’s financial needs.
“In the last European Council, we committed ourselves to cover the financial needs of Ukraine for 2026 and 2027. On this topic we, the Commission, have presented an options paper. This includes an option on immobilized Russian assets. The next step is that the Commission is ready to present the legal text,” she said.
The fourth priority is summed up in a phrase: “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. Nothing about Europe without Europe. Nothing about NATO without NATO.”
“The last priority I would like to focus on is one that cannot be forgotten — and that is the return of each and every Ukrainian child abducted by Russia,” von der Leyen said.
The EU Commission continues to work on a draft proposal to use Russia’s immobilized assets to finance a reparations loan for Ukraine in 2026-2027. The EU leaders are expected to make a final decision at the EU summit in December.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his special envoy Steve Witkoff will be going to Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, CNN said. At the same time, Trump said, U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukrainians, after which the U.S. president hopes to meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi — but not until a deal is more finalized.
Russia’s “big concession is they stop fighting and they don’t take any more land again,” Trump told reporters Tuesday evening.
