Kremlin denies Trump call, says West not ready for talks

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday denied a reported call between President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump on the Ukraine conflict and said it saw no signs the West was ready for talks.

The Washington Post said on Sunday that Trump had spoken by phone on Thursday with Putin, telling him not to inflame the conflict. Trump´s election to the White House has the potential to upend the almost three-year conflict and has thrown into question Washington´s multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv, crucial to its defence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the report, telling journalists it was “false”. Steven Cheung, Trump´s communications director, told AFP in a written statement: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders”.

A senior Ukrainian presidency official also said Kyiv was “not informed” of any call between Putin and Trump. The Republican said on the campaign trail that he could end the fighting within hours and has indicated he would talk directly with Putin.

Trump has not said how he intends to strike a peace deal on Ukraine or what terms he is proposing. He spoke by phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday and the pair “agreed to work together towards a return to peace in Europe”, according to Scholz´s spokesman.

But Peskov said “there are no preparations” for Putin to hold talks with Scholz and it was too early to say whether Europe´s position on Ukraine had changed. “We see a certain nervousness, various fears among Europeans over the election of Trump as US president,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Putin last week “repeated that he is open to all talks”, Peskov said, but “no preparation is being carried out now. We have not received any signals”. “If they say that some signals will come out, then we have to wait.”

So far, “European leaders are continuing... to try to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia”, Peskov said, while Moscow is “continuing our special operation until we achieve all our aims”. Ukraine has long been pushing the US and Europe to allow it to fire long-range weapons deep into Russia. Peskov insisted that “no kinds of weapons can change” the dynamic on the battlefield, where Russian forces are making rapid advances in the eastern Donetsk region.