Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump Jr defends father’s peace envoy as Kremlin rages over ‘unacceptable’ leak

Several congressional Republicans are harshly criticising the Trump administration over its handling of a proposed Ukraine peace plan they say favours Russia, after the leaked call showed his envoy collaborating with Russians.

A leaked transcript has revealed Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, advised a senior Russian official on how to praise Trump to facilitate a Ukraine peace deal.

“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. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired,” Republican Representative Don Bacon said on X.

Donald Trump Jr has defended the US envoy Steve Witkoff on the recent leaked details of his conversation with Russian officials.

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that Witkoff, in a 14 October telephone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s policy aide Yuri Ushakov, said they should work together on a ceasefire plan and that Putin should raise it with Trump.

Trump Jr has said what Witkoff was doing was “classic negotiation techniques to butter up his counterpart”.

“It’s almost like these media and deep state morons have never successfully negotiated a deal in the real world. It’s pretty obvious that nearly all of Witkoff’s critics want any sort of Ukraine peace deal to fail so they can continue this war endlessly. Enough is enough!” he said in a post.

The leaders of a pro-Russia group in France behind a poster campaign declaring “Russia is not my enemy” have been taken into custody and are being held on suspicion of intelligence-gathering for a foreign power.

The SOS Donbass group confirmed the arrest of its founder, Anna Novikova, in a Telegram post. The group’s president, Vincent Perfetti, is also facing charges, his lawyer said.

The Paris prosecutor’s office identified them only as Anna N and Vincent P, saying that both are in detention.

The breakup of the alleged intelligence-gathering operation came as French president Emmanuel Macron warned about Russian destabilization efforts targeting France, a key backer of Ukraine in the nearly four-year war.

Macron said this week that Russia is waging “hybrid wars” against Europe, including by employing proxies.

“It pays people, mercenaries. It has pushed people to carry out destabilisation activities in our countries,” he said.

Moldova summoned Russia’s ambassador on Wednesday to complain about the latest intrusion of drones into its airspace.

Russia’s ambassador expressed doubt that one of the drones was linked to a genuine intrusion and suggested the incident was aimed at spoiling Moscow’s already poor relations with Chisinau.

Moldova noted incursions by six Russian drones on Tuesday, including one that landed on a roof outside Floresti, near the Ukrainian border.

A second passed through Moldovan airspace before heading off toward Romania.

Senior Ukrainian security official Rustem Umerov, a key figure in peace negotiations with Moscow and Washington, was questioned as a witness by anti-corruption investigators probing Ukraine’s biggest wartime graft scandal, two local media outlets reported.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine invited Umerov to testify as part of its probe of Timur Mindich, the suspected ringleader of a $100 million kickback scheme involving the state nuclear energy company, the outlets quoted Umerov’s press office as saying.

They did not say when Umerov had been questioned.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Wednesday that an accord with the International Monetary Fund showed that her country’s economy was resilient despite the war against Russia and pledged to press on with reforms and the fight against corruption.

“In the first instance, the IMF has confirmed the resilience of the Ukrainian economy,” she wrote on Telegram. “Despite the blows to the energy and infrastructure sectors, the economy is working, and Ukraine is demonstrating its ability to manage risks and maintain stability in the most difficult conditions.”

Svyrydenko said her government was preparing a 2026 budget within the IMF framework and vowed to pursue existing priorities of macroeconomic stability, debt sustainability, transparency and strong institutions.

Russia said that the leak of a shocking recording of a call between Steve Witkoff and Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov amounted to hybrid warfare on Wednesday.

Bloomberg News published the transcript of an October 14 telephone call in which Trump’s envoy advised Ushakov on how to pitch a Ukraine peace plan to Trump.

“This is unacceptable,” Ushakov told Russian media. He said the leak was clearly aimed at hindering discussions between Russia and the United States.