The Kremlin on Monday denied claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump spoke over the phone. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Trump had called Putin, urging him to not escalate the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the claims "pure fiction," adding that there are "no concrete plans" so far of a communication between Trump and Putin.
"This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it's just false information. There was no conversation," Peskov told reporters. "This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications."
The Washington Post report had claimed that Trump called Putin from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday, just days after his election victory over Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
The Post cited multiple anonymous sources familiar with the call. The sources reportedly stated that Trump reminded Putin of the significant U.S. military presence in Europe. He also reportedly expressed interest in future discussions aimed at "resolving the Ukraine conflict soon."
In his victory speech following last week's 2024 U.S. election results, Donald Trump had notably stated, "I will not start wars; I will help end them." Just days after his win, the President-elect reached out to Ukrainian President Zelensky, signaling potential diplomatic moves regarding the ongoing conflict.
"I had an excellent call with President Trump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory - his tremendous campaign made this result possible," Zelensky shared on X after the phone call.
On Sunday, Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the White House plans "to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table."
Meanwhile, the situation in Ukraine continues to remain tense as authorities issued a nationwide alert on Monday and implemented preventative power blackouts across multiple cities in response to threats of a new large-scale Russian attack.
"Attention! Missile danger throughout Ukraine! MiG-31K takeoff," Ukraine's air force said in a post on Telegram. "The air alert is related to the launch of cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers," it added.
Kyiv's military administration also issued an emergency blackout order for the city, citing the threat of imminent missile attacks. Ukrainian media also reported similar orders for Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, and Kharkiv.
Monday's air alerts sounded off after Russian airstrikes killed at least six people in southern Ukraine, following a day of record overnight drone attacks between Moscow and Kyiv.
