Donald Trump claimed that Vladimir Putin wanted to take control of the whole of Ukraine, according to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

In a newly published interview with Vanity Fair, Wiles said in August this year that “Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country,” in reference to the Russian President and Ukraine, adding that “experts” who believed that Putin would be satisfied with just Donetsk were wrong.

Wiles’s comments come in contrast to the US President’s public statements, which have repeatedly downplayed Putin’s territorial ambitions. In February, Trump said the Russian President could take Ukraine “if he wants”, and later claimed he had warned Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky that Putin wanted “more land” than Russia currently occupies, referring to Donetsk. Privately, however, Trump appears to have believed Putin’s ambitions went much further.

According to Wiles, Trump accepted that Putin ultimately wanted control of the whole of Ukraine — a view shared by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to the Vanity Fair report, Rubio told her that Putin’s rejection of successive peace initiatives raised concerns in Washington. “There are offers on the table right now to basically stop this war at its current lines of contact, okay?” he said. “Which include substantial parts of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which they’ve controlled since 2014. And the Russians continue to turn it down. And so…you do start to wonder, well, maybe what this guy wants is the entire country.”

The disclosure comes as Trump on Tuesday said Putin “wants to see [the war] end”, following two days of talks in Berlin involving American, European and Ukrainian officials. The meetings focused on refining a peace proposal expected to be sent to Moscow shortly.

This proposed framework is reported to include European peacekeeping troops stationed in Ukraine, without US forces on the ground. Russia has previously ruled out accepting any settlement that involves foreign troops operating inside Ukraine.

Zelensky today said the plan could be ready “within days”. The Kremlin, however, played down the prospect of an agreement. “Our position is well known. It is consistent, it is transparent and it is clear to the Americans — and, in general, to the Ukrainians,” a spokesperson said.