The Kremlin dismissed on Monday reports that US President-elect Donald Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent days as “pure fiction.”
A source told Reuters on Sunday that Trump, who has criticized the level of US military and financial support for Kyiv and said he would end the war immediately, had spoken with Putin in recent days.
A source told Reuters they were aware of the conversation, which was first reported by the Washington Post, citing unnamed sources as saying Trump told Putin he must not escalate the war in Ukraine.
In an unusual way, the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that no such call was made between Putin and Trump.
“This is not completely true. This is pure fiction, just false information,” he told reporters. “There was no discussion.”
“This is a very clear example of the quality of information being published now, sometimes even in reputable publications,” he said.
Asked if Putin has any plans to contact Trump, Peskov said: “There are no concrete plans at the moment.”
Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last Wednesday.
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Asked about the alleged Trump-Putin phone call, Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, said: “We don't comment on secret phone calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”
Republican Trump will take office on Jan. 20. after winning the presidential election on 5 Nov. Biden invited Trump to the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said.
American National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that Biden's main message will be his commitment to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, and he will also talk to Trump about what is happening in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
“President Biden will have an opportunity in the next 70 days to make the case to Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not leave Ukraine, that leaving Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” Sullivan told CBS. “Face the Nation” news program.
Sullivan was asked if Biden would ask Congress to pass legislation authorizing additional funding for Ukraine.
“I did not come to present a specific legislative proposal. President Biden will make the case that we need continued services for Ukraine after his term ends,” he said.
Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars in US military and economic aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticized and fought with other Republican lawmakers.
Trump said last year that if he had been in the White House at the time, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine. He told Reuters that Ukraine may have to give up space in order to reach a peace deal, something Kiev rejects and Biden has never suggested.
Zelenskiy said on Thursday that he did not know the details of Trump's plan to end the war quickly and that he was sure that a quick end would involve a major concession from Kyiv.
According to the Government Accountability Office, Congress allocated more than $174 billion to Ukraine under Biden. The pace of aid will likely slow under Trump, as Republicans will control the US Senate with a 52-seat majority.
Control of the US House of Representatives in the next Congress is not yet clear, as some votes are still being counted. Republicans won 213 seats, according to Edison Research, just shy of the 218 needed for a majority. If Republicans win both parties, it will mean that most of Trump's agenda will have a much easier time getting through Congress.
US Senator Bill Hagerty, who is a friend of Trump and is considered the main contender for the secretary of state, criticized the US funding of Ukraine in a CBS interview.
“The American people want sovereignty protected here in America before we spend our money and resources protecting the sovereignty of another nation,” Hagerty said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Brendan O'Brien and the Moscow bureau; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Diane Craft, Timothy Heritage and Jon Boyle)
