MOSCOW: The Kremlin has denied reports of a phone call between United States President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Trump allegedly urged Putin to avoid escalating the war in Ukraine, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, dubbed these reports “pure fiction”. Notably, The Washington Post on Sunday (local time), citing its sources, said that Trump took the call from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and, during the conversation, advised the Russian President not to escalate the war in Ukraine.
Calling the media reports “pure fiction”, Peskov on Monday told reporters, “This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information. 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”.
On being asked if President Putin had plans for any contacts with Trump, Peskov said, “There are no concrete plans yet”, according to Al Jazeera.
The Washington Post stated that during the call, the President-elect reminded Putin of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe. During his election campaign, Trump promised to immediately settle the Ukrainian conflict, but did not say how he was planning to do this.
According to the US daily, Trump said privately that he would support an agreement where Russia kept some of the liberated territories and, during the phone call with Putin, he had briefly touched upon the issue of territories. The US daily further noted that the Ukrainian government was informed about the call and it did not object to it as the Kyiv officials understood that Trump would discuss the matter with Putin. (ANI)