MOSCOW-UNS/Reuter: US President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the Ukraine war, a source familiar with the conversation said, but the Kremlin denied the two had spoken.
The source told Reuters on Sunday that Trump, who has criticised the scale of US military and financial support for Kyiv and said he will end the war quickly, had spoken to Putin in recent days.
The Washington Post first reported the call had taken place, citing unidentified sources, and said Trump had told Putin that he should not escalate the Ukraine war.
But, in an unusual move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday no such call had taken place.
“This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,” he told reporters. “There was no conversation.”
“This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,” he said.
Asked whether Putin had plans for any contacts with Trump, Peskov said: “There are no concrete plans yet.”
Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last Wednesday.
Asked about the purported Trump-Putin call, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”
Republican Trump will take office on January 20 after winning the November 5 presidential election. Biden has invited Trump to the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said.
“President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” Sullivan told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” show.
Sullivan was asked whether Biden would ask Congress to pass legislation to authorize more funding for Ukraine.
“I’m not here to put forward a specific legislative proposal. President Biden will make the case that we do need ongoing resources for Ukraine beyond the end of his term,” he said.
