A spokesman for Trump refused to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders.
The Washington Post first reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources, that the two spoke on Thursday, with Trump advising Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine, citing the sizeable US military presence in Europe.
In a conference call on Monday with journalists, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” and the report was “completely untrue, it is pure fiction”.
Asked about the report, Trump’s communications directory Steven Cheung said, “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders”.
Speaking at a foreign policy forum Thursday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin offered congratulations to Trump on his election victory and praised him for what he said was “brave” behaviour during an assassination attempt on him in July.
Peskov said “there are no specific plans yet” for a conversation between Putin and Trump.
He said previously that contacts between the two before Trump’s inauguration “are not ruled out” and pointed to Trump saying that he would call Putin before the inauguration.
He denied, however, that Russia’s presidential administration or Foreign Ministry had any contacts with Trump’s campaign after the election.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could quickly end the fighting in Ukraine but did not offer details of how he would accomplish that.
